the human being in his essence, attributes, names, and actions, both individually and as a species, are too numerous to count. Every rational person knows something of these distinctions. Hence it is fitting that commands and prohibitions should be addressed to him, and that an act should truly be attributed to him as something he acquires, even though it is created by Allah Most High. For Allah Most High created the servant and his action, and made that action his own: an action subsisting in him, proceeding from him, and occurring through his created power.

At the very least, an “act” is comparable to the attributes and character traits created in the servant when these are made to lead to further consequences. Can the servant, then, rightly be dissociated from them? Certainly not—and why should he be?

As for the “command,” in the case of the obedient it is among the causes through which their action comes about: it arouses their motivation, then brings about their obedience, wholehearted compliance, and submission. It thus forms part of the prior divine decree leading them to felicity. In the case of the disobedient, it is the cause on account of which disobedience is rightly ascribed to them, since without it the obedient could not be distinguished from the disobedient. “Moreover,” in their case it forms part of the prior divine decree leading them to disobedience, so that He may lead many astray through it and guide many through it.

Concerning the inclusion of commands and prohibitions among divinely decreed matters . . . (1) resolves many a difficulty. This . . . (2) glorified and exalted is He, because of His knowledge of the outcomes. As for commands issued by human beings, the absence is evident . . . (3) of acts of disobedience within their knowledge, and that their intention is the very occurrence of the act from everyone; thus it is . . . (4) in the outward aspect of the religious command conveyed by the messengers through the revealed Books, and Allah