but rather lived as beasts do, and was not dead and devoid of sensation, his state in the Hereafter will be the same. For the purpose of life is to attain what benefits the living being and brings it pleasure. A living being inevitably experiences either pleasure or pain. If it experiences no pleasure, the purpose of life remains unfulfilled, since pain is not what is sought. This is like someone who is alive in this world but suffers from severe illnesses that prevent him from enjoying anything that the living enjoy. Throughout his life, he continues to prefer death, yet cannot attain it.

Since willing and acting are inseparable from the soul’s nature—for a human being is ever acting and intending—if it knows the True One, seeks Him, loves Him, and worships Him, this is part of Allah’s perfect bestowal of blessings upon it. Otherwise, its nature inevitably requires it to have an object of desire and worship other than Allah, and evil desires that harm it.

This evil thus arises from two things: its failure to know Allah and worship Him—which is an absence and is not attributed to an agent—and its inherent need for an object of desire and worship, which leads it to worship another besides Him. This is the evil for which it is punished. It results from its nature together with its lack of guidance.

The Qadariyyah acknowledge all of this, and acknowledge that Allah created the human being with a will. However, they hold that what is created is merely his potential and capacity to will—that is, his capacity to will this or that.