with a particular attribute, magnitude, time, and place necessarily requires an agent who specifies these by his will and volition. This is the conclusion sought here by Abū al-Maʿālī and other scholars and rational investigators.

As for what emboldened him against them, these speculative theologians who do not affirm that wisdom is taken into account in the acts of Allah Most High—such as Abū al-Hasan al-Ashʿarī, his followers, and those jurists who agree with them among the followers of Ahmad—may mercy be bestowed upon him by