Moreover, the rational principles whose validity they acknowledge oblige them to agree with him on this point, as explained earlier.

This would hold if the philosophers denied will, but that is not the case. Some of them explicitly affirm it; this is the position defended by Abū al-Barakāt, one of their number.

[Ibn Rushd’s discussion in Tahāfut al-Tahāfut and Ibn Taymiyya’s commentary on it]

Others report without qualification that the philosophers affirm will, as Ibn Rushd chose to represent their position. He said in Tahāfut al-Tahāfut:

“Abū Hāmid opened this section by attributing an appalling position to the philosophers: that the Creator has no will, either concerning what comes into existence or concerning the whole, because His action proceeds necessarily from His essence, as light proceeds from the sun.

“He then reports them as saying: ‘The fact that He is an agent necessarily entails that He is knowing.’”

He said:

“The philosophers do not deny will of the Creator, exalted is He, nor do they ascribe human will to Him. Human will arises only from a deficiency in the one who wills and from his being affected by the object of his will. Once he attains what he wills, that deficiency is made good, and the state of being affected that is called will ceases. What they affirm of the meaning of will in His case is that