“the Creator of people’s actions,” there would have been no distinction in this between good and evil, what is loved and what is hated, or what is commanded and what is forbidden. Rather, it would have provided an argument for the polytheists among the antinomians and the Jabriyyah, who reject commands and prohibitions, and moral goodness and badness; for He created people’s actions. But when He said:

“And inspired it with its wickedness and its righteousness,”

these words distinguished between the good that is commanded and the evil that is forbidden, establishing that actions fall into good and evil, although He, exalted is He, is the Creator of both categories. This is the Quran’s approach in numerous passages: it mentions the believer and the disbeliever, their good and evil deeds, and His promise and warning; and it mentions that He is the Creator of both categories, as in His words:

“He leads astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills,”

and similar passages.

It is concerning this principle that the Jabriyyah and the Qadariyyah have gone astray.

The Magian Qadariyyah said: Actions fall into good and evil because of qualities inherent in them, and the servant himself brings them into being, independently of Allah’s power and without His creating them.

The Jabriyyah, by contrast, said: Rather, the servant is compelled to act. Compulsion is a reality that necessitates the occurrence of his actions whenever the causes Allah creates are present, and makes their occurrence impossible whenever any of those causes is absent. If he is compelled, an action cannot be good or evil by virtue of any quality inherent in it.