Now, when the intended object of power comes into existence: if the presence of that power and will before the object existed were the same as their presence at the very moment the object is realized, then that presence would be eternal and would have produced nothing. Since the state of affairs has not changed, it would likewise produce nothing thereafter. This is even flimsier than the view that the object appears after will and power, for in that case you have a cause whose effect is merely delayed, whereas here you are positing an effect with no cause at all—and asserting an effect without a cause is far more objectionable than asserting an effect that lags behind its cause.

For this reason, people’s denunciation of the Qadariyyah for claiming that God has bestowed upon the believer no favor that He has not equally bestowed upon the unbeliever is sharper than their denunciation of them for saying that faith derives from a pre-existent power and will.

People know—deep in their own souls—that they depend on God to guide them and help them toward faith and righteous deeds far more certainly than they know any philosophical rule about an effect accompanying its cause. Tell someone that the assistance given to the Companions to believe was the same as that given to Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab, and his innate nature will instantly reject the notion.

The same holds for comparable claims: saying, for instance, that the aid by which the one who prays is helped is identical to the aid by which the one who neglects the prayer is helped, or that the support granted to the rightly guided matches that granted to the misguided. Natural instinct bears witness that, were the two aids equal, neither party would have been singled out for obedience.

All this, even though the Qadariyyah assert parity only with respect to power; as for will, they contend that the believer brings into being the very will to believe, so that when