toward his slave. How much more, then, the Lord of all worlds, whose creatures live immersed in the ocean of His favor and His pure generosity, giving Him absolutely nothing in return? Although their deeds are means by which they receive His generosity and bounty, it is He who bestows favor upon them by enabling them to pursue those means, guiding them to them, helping them carry them out, bringing them to completion, and accepting them despite their shortcomings. This is the sense in which admission to Paradise is affirmed in His words: “for what you used to do.”

Here, the preposition “for” expresses causation, refuting the Qadariyyah and the Jabriyyah, who say that there is no connection between deeds and recompense, that deeds are not its causes, and that at most they are merely signs of it. They say that even these signs are not consistent, since recompense does not always follow deeds, whether good or evil. Thus, nothing remains but the decree governing creation and the divine will alone.

The revealed texts invalidate the position of the latter just as they invalidate that of the former. Reason and innate disposition likewise invalidate both positions, showing anyone with a discerning heart and sound understanding the worth of the position of Ahl al-Sunnah. They occupy the middle ground, affirming the all-encompassing nature of Allah’s will and power, His creation of His servants and their deeds, and His perfect wisdom. This wisdom entails linking causes to their effects, establishing that connection both in His revealed law and His decree, and making those effects follow their causes, both in this life and in the Hereafter.

Each of the two deviant groups abandoned one aspect of the truth and, as a result, embraced a form of falsehood—indeed, many forms. But by His permission, Allah guided Ahl al-Sunnah to the truth concerning which they differed.

2:213 “And Allah guides whom He wills to a straight path.”

And 62:4 “That is the bounty of Allah, which He grants to whom He wills. And Allah is the Possessor of great bounty.”

Section

The third category consists of those who claim that the benefit of worship lies in disciplining souls, preparing them to receive an outpouring of knowledge, and raising their faculties above those of predatory beasts and other animals. Were souls deprived of acts of worship, they would be of the same kind as the souls of predatory beasts and other animals,