place one’s hope in none but Allah, put one’s trust in Him alone, ask of Him alone, seek help from Him alone, and appeal to Him alone for deliverance. To Him belongs all praise, to Him all complaints are addressed, and He alone is sought for help and deliverance. There is no might or power except through Him. How much more so, then, when no cause can independently produce the desired outcome! Rather, other causes must join it, and obstacles and counteracting factors must also be removed before the intended result can be achieved.

Every cause has something that assists it and something that opposes it. Unless its assisting factor supports it and its opposing factor is averted, it will not produce its result. Rain alone does not make plants grow without the air, soil, and other things that work alongside it. Then the crop cannot fully develop unless destructive blights are kept away from it. Food and drink provide nourishment only through the organs and faculties placed within the body, and all of these together are of no benefit unless harmful factors are averted.

As for a created being who gives to you or supports you—notwithstanding that Allah creates within him the will, power, and action—what he does cannot be accomplished without many causes beyond his control that assist him in achieving his aim, even if he is a king whose commands are obeyed. Whatever opposes or obstructs these assisting causes must also be averted. Thus, the desired outcome can be achieved only when the causal basis is present and impediments are absent. Every particular cause is merely one component of that causal basis; no single thing in existence constitutes it on its own. Even if one calls a particular cause the “causal basis” and calls everything else that assists it “conditions,” this is merely a disagreement over terminology.

In that case, one would say:

The causal basis and the conditions must be present, and impediments must be absent. As for there being among created things a complete cause that necessarily entails its effect, this is false.