For although they affirm an agent, they nevertheless say that His power and will relate equally to all contingent things, and that newly originated events occur without any newly arising cause whatsoever. Rather, the agent’s state before acting and when acting is the same. Clearly, this explicitly affirms that a contingent thing can prevail without a sufficient factor that favors it.
These thinkers say that an agent endowed with power and choice favors one of two alternatives within his power over the other without a factor that favors it. This is the foundation of the doctrine of the Qadariyyah, and also of the determinist Jahmiyyah.
The Qadariyyah used this principle to exclude the actions of living beings from being created by Allah. They said that the servant possesses power and choice, so acting prevails over refraining without a factor that favors it.
They also said that the blessings Allah has bestowed upon the people of faith and obedience, by which they believe and obey, are the same as those He has bestowed upon the people of disbelief and disobedience. For if He sends messengers to both groups, grants both the ability to act, removes the impediments facing both, and provides every possible form of gracious assistance through which both groups would believe, He is like someone who gives his two sons equal amounts of money.
They then said that the believer performs acts of obedience without any blessing that Allah has bestowed particularly upon him to help him believe, while the disbeliever commits disbelief without any cause from Allah.
This doctrine contradicts both revelation and reason. Allah has explained in several places the blessing of faith that He has bestowed particularly upon the believers, as in His words, Exalted is He:
“But Allah has endeared faith to you and made it pleasing in your hearts, and has made disbelief, defiance, and disobedience hateful to you. Those are the rightly guided.”
The Qadariyyah say that this addresses all creation. That is not so; rather, it addresses the believers, as He says:
“Those are the rightly guided.”