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As for the questioner’s words in verse:

“For they have explicitly stated that he … is indeed compelled in his acts of will.”

He is answered as follows:

If compulsion regarding his willing means that Allah made him one who wills, then this is true. Yet calling this constraint, coercion, or compulsion is a contradiction in both wording and meaning. Someone who is constrained, coerced, or compelled is not willing, choosing, loving, and content; and someone who has been made to choose, love, and be content cannot be described as constrained, coerced, or compelled.

If it is said:

“What is meant is that he was made to will through Allah’s will and power, without any prior act of will on his part by which he chose to become one who wills.”

They are answered:

“This meaning is true, whether or not it is called compulsion. But it does not contradict his being one who chooses. For whoever has been made to will and choose has thereby been affirmed to possess will and choice. A thing does not contradict itself or what necessarily accompanies it. It is therefore inadmissible to ask: ‘How can someone who chooses have been made to choose, and someone who wills have been made to will?’”

If it is said:

“He is given a choice about being one who chooses.”

The reply is:

“The meaning of this is that Allah made him