Shaykh al-Islam Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-‘Abbās Ahmad ibn ‘Abd al-Halīm ibn ‘Abd al-Salām Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

What do the esteemed scholars, the imams of the religion—may Allah be pleased with them all—say concerning human actions: are they eternal, or were they created when man was created? What argument can be advanced against someone who says that all human actions, including movements and everything else, belong to the decree ordained before the creation of the heavens and the earth? And what of someone who does not qualify statements about past events by invoking Allah’s will—for example, saying categorically, “This is a palm tree or an olive tree”—and who says nothing without referring it back to Allah’s will? A detailed explanation of this is requested.

He replied—may Allah be pleased with him:

All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all worlds. Human actions are created, by agreement of the early generations of the Muslim community and its imams. This was expressly stated by all the imams of Islam: Imam Ahmad, those before him, and those after him. Some even said: “Whoever says that human actions are uncreated is like someone who says that the heavens and the earth are uncreated.”

Yahyā ibn Sa‘īd al-‘Attār said: “I have always heard our companions say that human actions are created.” The early generations openly affirmed this when the Qadariyyah proclaimed that human actions were not