by Him. Although the Ashʿarites and others like them disagreed with them on this, they agreed with them—and went further—in denying the powers and natures within bodies by which they perform the actions Allah has made them perform. In reality, all of them possess powers and natures that give rise to an inclination toward action and motion, whether accompanied by life or not. Allah is the Creator of all of this.

Yet the motion of a nonliving thing is only derivative: when displaced from its place of rest, it has an inclination to return there. Motion is therefore not intrinsic to it, unlike a living being, for every motion in the universe originates in the choice of a living being. It is His angels through whom Allah Most High administers various affairs of His creation, just as He administers whatever He wills through human beings. But the angels are greater and more numerous, as Allah Most High says:

“And by those who direct affairs” {5} [al-Nāziʿāt 5].

And He Most High says:

“And by those who apportion affairs” {4} [al-Dhāriyāt 4].