“It is to know that Allah’s power over things involves no mixture, and His making of things involves no exertion. His making is the cause of everything, but His making has no cause. Neither in the heavens above nor in the earths below is there any disposer of affairs other than Allah. Whatever takes shape in your imagination, Allah is unlike it.”’”

This statement chiefly concerns the acts of the True One, glorified is He, and His lordship. He declared that Allah is the Lord of everything and that none but Him disposes of affairs, refuting the Qadariyyah and others who place certain things outside Allah’s power and governance. He also declared that Allah’s power and His making are unlike the power and making of His servants. Their bodily power arises from the mingling of humours, and their actions involve exertion, whereas Allah Most High is not like that.

As for his statement, “His making is the cause of everything, but His making has no cause,” it has already been explained that those who uphold the truth intend its sound meaning: nothing external to Allah, glorified is He, prompts or impels Him to act, as happens with created beings. His action has no cause external to Him; rather, His action is the cause of everything. Whatever Allah wills comes to pass, and whatever He does not will does not come to pass.

Abū al-Qāsim’s purpose is to show that these people did not hold the views of the Qadariyyah among the Muʿtazilah. This is true: we know of no shaykh accepted by the Muslim community who held the Muʿtazilah’s views, whether their adoption of Jahm’s position concerning the attributes or their adoption of the Qadariyyah’s position concerning actions. Rather, they are foremost among people in affirming divine decree and witnessing it