performed by choice.” Nor is he barred from what he leaves undone because he hates it, dislikes it, and does not desire it—namely, “his voluntary abstentions.”

As for al-Awzā‘ī, he prohibited using this term even when this meaning was intended, since it had no basis in the Quran or the Sunnah. This would lead to using an innovated expression whose apparent meaning is false, which is impermissible even if it is said that a sound meaning was intended.

Al-Khallāl said: “Al-Marwadhī informed us, saying: ‘I heard one of the elders say that he heard ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī say: Sufyān al-Thawrī rejected compulsion and said, “Allah Most High fashioned His servants’ dispositions.”’”

Al-Marwadhī said: “I think he meant the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to al-Ashajj of ‘Abd al-Qays”—meaning his words recorded in Sahīh Muslim:

“You possess two traits that Allah loves: forbearance and deliberation.”

He asked: “Are these two traits that I cultivated, or two traits with which I was endowed by nature?”

He replied: “Rather, they are two traits with which you were endowed by nature.”

He said: “Praise be to Allah, who endowed me by nature with two traits that Allah Most High loves.”

For this reason, al-Bukhārī and others cited Allah Most High’s words as evidence that human acts are created:

“Indeed, mankind was created anxious.”
“When evil touches him, impatient.”
“And when good touches him, withholding.”

Thus, Allah Most High states that He created man with this disposition. Al-Awzā‘ī’s answer is sounder than al-Zubaydī’s, because al-Zubaydī denied compulsion, whereas al-Awzā‘ī prohibited using the term. Since this expression can bear a sound meaning, denying it may entail denying both truth and falsehood. Thus al-Khallāl related what ‘Abd Allāh ibn Ahmad mentioned in his book al-Sunnah (The Sunnah), saying: “We were told by