and the issue became obscure to both groups, leaving them bewildered.
Those, however, who hold that the Lord’s creation of His creatures is not identical with the creatures themselves maintain that the servants’ acts are created like all other created things and are produced by the Lord like everything else He produces. They do not say that these acts are the Lord’s own act and act of creation; rather, they say that they are the servant’s own acts. On this understanding, the difficulty disappears. For lying, wrongdoing, and other such evils characterize the one whose acts they are—as when the servant performs them and they subsist in him. They do not characterize the One who created them, when He has made them attributes of another. Likewise, glorified is He, He is not characterized by the tastes, colors, smells, shapes, dimensions, movements, and other things He creates in others. When He creates a person’s color, He Himself does not take on that color. When He creates a foul smell, a bitter taste, an ugly form, or anything else that is loathsome, blameworthy, and repugnant, He is not characterized by these ugly, blameworthy, and loathsome created things, nor by evil acts. The evil of these acts means that they harm their doer, give cause for his blame and punishment, and bring him pain and torment. This affects the doer in whom they subsist, not the Creator who created them as the acts of another.
Furthermore, the majority, who affirm that He has wisdom in creating whatever is repugnant, harmful, and hurtful in the world, say that He has great wisdom in creating these evil acts that harm their doers, just as He has great wisdom in creating illnesses and sorrows.
As for those who say that His acts are not explained by underlying reasons, neither of these is so explained on their view.