And if compulsion is real, the servant is coerced—
and in your view, the coerced are excused.
How welcome that compulsion! I was a man
eager to hasten towards you.
Longing has made me ill, yet
the decrees of fate keep me from you.

He replied:

All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all worlds. The foundation of “this question” is to understand that the position of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamā'ah—the people of the Sunnah and the united community—on this subject and others is what the Quran and Sunnah indicate, and what was upheld by the foremost pioneers among the Emigrants and the Helpers, and those who followed them in righteousness. It is that Allah is the Creator, Lord and Sovereign of all things. This encompasses all entities that subsist in themselves and the attributes inherent in them, including the deeds of His servants and everything else. Whatever He—glory be to Him—wills comes to pass, and whatever He does not will does not come to pass. Nothing, therefore, comes into existence except through His will and power. Nothing He wills is beyond Him; rather, He has power over all things, and He never wills anything without having the power to accomplish it.

He—glory be to Him—knows what has happened, what will happen, and how what has not happened would happen if it did. This includes the deeds of His servants and everything else. Allah ordained the destinies of created beings before creating them: He decreed their lifespans, their provisions and their deeds, and recorded all of this. He also recorded their ultimate outcome, whether bliss or wretchedness. Thus, they believe in His creation of all things