And His words:

“He has endeared faith to you and made it beautiful in your hearts.”

And His words:

“Those are the ones in whose hearts He has inscribed faith and whom He has strengthened with a spirit from Him.”

And His words:

“Allah calls to the Home of Peace and guides whom He wills to a straight path.”

These and similar passages show that whatever guidance, light, and faith arise in people’s hearts come from Allah Most High, through His grace and mercy.

This relates to the question of divine decree.

The Mu‘tazilah, being Qadarites, deny that Allah Most High is the Creator of human actions. They say that the faith a person attains does not come from Allah Most High. Rather, He has given the disbeliever the same means of attaining faith as He has given the believer, and His favor upon the believer is no greater than His favor upon the disbeliever. The very capacity through which one believes is that through which the other disbelieves. Each chooses one of the two alternatives within his capacity without any cause necessitating that choice, for an agent possessing capacity and choice can prefer one of two equivalent alternatives without any determining factor.

As for anyone among them who adopts Abū al-Husayn’s view—that an act cannot occur through capacity without a motive, that Allah creates the motive, and that the act within that capacity must necessarily occur when both are present—he agrees in substance with Ahl al-Sunnah, even if he outwardly disputes with them.