moving, black, white, hot, or cold, and not anything else.

They said: Likewise, when speech and will subsist in a subject, that subject is the one who speaks and wills, and not anything else.

They said: Thus, a speaker can only be a speaker through speech that subsists in him, and one who wills can only do so through a will that subsists in him. Likewise, one can only be living, knowing, and capable through life, knowledge, and power that subsist in him. The consistent implication of this is that one can only be an agent through an act that subsists in him. For this reason, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sought refuge in Allah Most High’s attributes, acts, and very Self, saying:

“O Allah, I seek refuge in Your pleasure from Your displeasure, in Your protection from Your punishment, and in You from You. I cannot adequately praise You; You are as You have praised Yourself.”

This is among the evidence that the imams, including Ahmad ibn Hanbal and others, cited to establish that Allah’s speech is not created. They said: He sought refuge in it, and refuge is not sought in anything created.

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As for the questioner’s statement:

“Hence the act has no effect on … what befalls the agent,”

if he means that the act has no effect on the praise, blame, reward, or punishment that the agent receives, this is said only by those who deny causes, such as Jahm and those who