In their view, “creation” is nothing other than the created thing, and the “object acted upon” is identical with the act itself—exactly as the Ashʿarīs also hold.

Because both camps agreed that creation equals the created entity and that the act equals the acted-upon, they parted company—indeed, they stood at opposite extremes—when it came to the deeds of human beings. One party said, “It is established that the servant truly performs his own act; therefore his act cannot be God’s act, and thus cannot be God’s creation nor something created by Him.” The other party replied, “It is established that God is the Creator of everything, including the servants’ deeds; consequently, nothing in existence—whether act or object—belongs to anyone but God, for the act is the acted-upon. Hence the movements of servants are not their acts at all, but God’s.”

The great majority of people—Ahl al-Sunnah and others—maintain a different position: creation is other than the created thing, and God’s act, which subsists in His essence, is not the same as the entity that comes to be outside Him. They affirm that human actions are created and produced by God, yet they are not identical with His creating or His act. Rather, they are the very acts of the servant himself—truly his, not merely figuratively so.

Whether the servant brings about an effect generated from him beyond his own act is the question known as “generation” (tawallud). Upon that issue rests the discussion of human speech and sounds, for vocal sounds arise from a person’s voluntary motions. Whoever claims that what is generated is neither the servant’s act nor within his acquisition will likewise say that human sounds are not within their power, are not their deeds, and are not their acquisitions. This is the stance of the Ashʿarīs and those who follow them among the Hanbalīs and others, such as the judge Abū Yaʿlā, Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Zāghūnī, and others.