He said: “If he were their creator, he would have comprehensive knowledge of their details; yet this necessary consequence does not hold.”

But al-Asharī and one group framed the argument around a rational person who acts while heedless. Another group said: “There is no need to frame it around a rational person. Rather, no human agent has comprehensive knowledge of the details of his actions, although he is aware of them in general.”

Thus, a person wills nothing without first being aware of it. He conceives what he wills in general terms, even if not in detail. This is among the things through which people have come to know that an agent acting by will must conceive what he wills, even though their will is not like the Lord’s will, nor their knowledge like His knowledge—just as they know that a person performs his actions even though he is not their creator.

This is the middle position: affirming that the Lord is the Creator of everything; that although human actions are created by Him, they are also actions of human beings; that human power has an effect on these actions, just as causes affect their effects; and that Allah creates everything through the causes He has created. No cause acts independently; rather, it needs other causes to assist it and opposing obstacles to be removed. Only the will of Allah Most High is independent: whatever He wills happens, and whatever He does not will does not happen. Whatever Allah wills happens even if people do not will it, and whatever He does not will does not happen even if people will it.

This is the position of the early generations of the Muslim community, its leading scholars, and its majority. The purpose here, however, is not to discuss questions of divine decree, but to establish the reality of Allah’s knowledge.

The third line of argument by which we know that His knowledge of Himself entails His knowledge of His creatures is as follows:

Whatever pertains to the Lord’s attributes and actions is not