Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.
Joy is affirmed for Allah تعالى in authentic texts from the Sunnah. It is a real attribute that befits His majesty and perfection, and it does not resemble the joy of created beings. Affirming joy for Allah تعالى does not require that its cause be something previously unknown to Him. Allah تعالى knows all things before they occur, and His joy at His servant’s repentance does not imply ignorance or the occurrence of new knowledge that He did not previously possess.
It is authentically reported in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim from Anas ibn Malik رضي الله عنه that the Prophet ﷺ said:
“Allah is more joyful at the repentance of His servant when he repents to Him than one of you would be when he is traveling through a barren desert, and his mount, carrying his food and drink, escapes from him. He despairs of finding it, then comes to a tree and lies down in its shade, having lost hope of finding his mount. Then, while he is in that state, suddenly he finds it standing beside him. He takes hold of its reins and then, out of intense joy, says: ‘O Allah, You are my servant and I am Your Lord,’ making a mistake because of the intensity of his joy.”
Narrated by al-Bukhari (6308) and Muslim (2747).
As for the wording that compares Allah’s joy at His servant’s repentance to the joy of a childless person at having a child, a lost person at finding what was lost, and a thirsty person at reaching water, it has not been authentically established, and al-Albani regarded it as weak.
The problem arises when Allah’s attributes are compared to the attributes of human beings.
A person may rejoice at something because he did not know whether it would happen or not. He may also rejoice at something that he already knew would happen and had been waiting for. Joy is not necessarily connected to ignorance or the acquisition of new knowledge.
More importantly, Allah’s joy is not like the joy of created beings at all, because Allah’s attributes are perfect and befit His majesty, whereas the attributes of created beings are limited and deficient.
Allah تعالى says:
“There is nothing whatsoever like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.” [Ash-Shura: 11]
Just as we affirm for Allah hearing, sight, knowledge, mercy, love, pleasure, and anger, while believing that none of these attributes resemble the attributes of created beings, we likewise affirm joy for Him in the manner that befits Him.
Allah تعالى knows all things before they occur, and nothing in the heavens or on earth is hidden from Him.
When a servant repents, Allah already knows that he will repent. He knows the time of his repentance and his state when he repents. Nevertheless, the hadith establishes that Allah rejoices at his repentance.
There is no contradiction in this, because joy does not mean that Allah تعالى discovered something He had not previously known.
Rather, the intended meaning is to affirm the attribute of joy for Allah تعالى as His Messenger ﷺ affirmed it, without asking how it is and without likening it to the attributes of creation.
The scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah have established that Allah’s attributes cannot be measured against the attributes of created beings. Rather, whatever is established by the Qur’an and Sunnah is affirmed, while Allah is declared free from resembling His creation.
Allah تعالى says:
“So do not set up comparisons for Allah. Indeed, Allah knows and you do not know.” [An-Nahl: 74]
Just as we do not know the nature of Allah’s Essence, we do not know the manner in which His attributes are manifested.
We understand the basic meaning of joy in the Arabic language, and we know that it is affirmed for Allah تعالى by authentic texts. But we do not know how Allah rejoices, and it is not permissible to imagine His joy as resembling human joy or to compare the two.
For this reason, the scholars state regarding Allah’s attributes: we affirm them as they have been transmitted, without likening them to creation, asking how they are, or denying them.
The comprehensive principle is Allah’s statement:
“There is nothing whatsoever like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.” [Ash-Shura: 11]
Thus, Allah affirms attributes for Himself while simultaneously denying any likeness between Himself and His creation.
It is authentically established in the Sunnah that Allah تعالى rejoices at His servant’s repentance. This joy is a real attribute that befits Allah’s majesty and perfection. It does not conflict with His prior knowledge of the servant’s repentance, because Allah’s joy does not arise from previous ignorance or from discovering something He did not know. Rather, it is an attribute of His that we affirm as it has been transmitted, without likening it to creation or asking how it is.
It is obligatory for us to believe what Allah has told us about Himself and what His Messenger ﷺ has told us about Him, and to leave aside speculation about the manner of His attributes, for Allah تعالى does not resemble His creation, neither in His Essence nor in His attributes.
And Allah knows best.