already determined, or is it something they face anew in response to what their Prophet has brought them and the proof established against them?’

He replied, ‘No. Rather, it is something already decreed for them and settled for them. This is confirmed in the Book of Allah, Mighty and Majestic:

“By the soul and the One Who fashioned it,
and inspired it with its wickedness and its righteousness.”’”

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, thus explained that Allah’s words, “And inspired it with its wickedness and its righteousness,” confirm what he had stated concerning the decree. The hadith concerns the prior decree contained in Allah’s knowledge, His writing, and His speech; only the extreme Qadariyyah deny this. The Quranic passage, however, concerns Allah’s creation of people’s actions, which goes further, for the Magian-like Qadariyyah deny this. Thus, the Quranic passage establishes what the hadith states and more. This is why the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, presented it as confirmation. This can be explained in several ways.

First: once a person knows that Allah is the One Who inspires wickedness and righteousness, and that this involves neither injustice, as the Iblīs-like Qadariyyah claim, nor any contradiction of divine commands and prohibitions, promises and threats, as the polytheistic Qadariyyah claim, he has no grounds relating to predestination for disputing that Allah recorded and decreed this before it came into existence. This is why most of the Qadariyyah who deny the creation of human actions have acknowledged the prior decree. No member of the Qadariyyah has affirmed that Allah creates people’s actions while denying, on grounds of predestination, that Allah is their Creator.