Thus He described the idols as carved and made by them, and stated that He created them and is the Creator of what they made. Here, mā (“what”) means “that which”: the meaning is that He created the idols they made. Since He is the Creator of the finished product, which bears the effect of the act, this indicates that He is the Creator of His servants’ acts. As for the view that mā serves to form a verbal noun, it is very weak indeed.

Allah, exalted is He, says:

“And We destroyed what Pharaoh and his people had made and what they had erected.”

What He destroyed was what they had built and erected. As for the accidental properties that subsisted in them, these had ceased to exist before they drowned. His words, “and what they had erected,” indicate that the structures were their handiwork: they themselves carried out the construction embodied in them, namely, the joining of their parts. Similarly, His words:

“Do you build on every height a monument for idle amusement?”

indicate that they themselves built those structures, for He says, “Do you build.” Likewise, His words:

“And you carve houses out of the mountains”

are like His words:

“Do you worship what you carve?”

And His words:

“They hewed the rock in the valley”

indicate that they hewed—that is, cut—the rock. Another example is His saying, exalted is He:

“Then, when the sacred months have passed, kill the polytheists.”

He commanded that they be killed, and a command can concern only something within the servant’s power. This therefore indicates that killing is within his power: it is the act he performs upon a person, causing that person to die. It is like slaughtering. Further examples are His words:

“Except those you slaughter,”

and His words:

“Do not kill game,”

and His words:

“Whoever among you kills it deliberately must compensate with livestock equivalent to what he killed.”

This indicates that the game is killed by the human being who kills it, in contrast to His words:

“You did not kill them, but Allah killed them.”

For this is like His saying:

“And you did not throw when you threw