This is the approach of Abū Abd Allāh al-Rāzī and others among the Jabriyyah who deny that actions are intrinsically divided into good and evil. The former is the approach of Abū al-Husayn al-Basrī and others among the Qadariyyah who maintain that the servant alone brings his action into being, that knowledge of this is either self-evident or inferential, and that actions are intrinsically divided into good and evil, knowledge of which is self-evident.

Abū al-Husayn is the leading authority among the later Muʿtazilah, possessing greater intellect and merit than most of his peers. Yet his knowledge of the Prophetic traditions, the meanings of the Quran, and the way of the early generations is limited. On this issue, he and Abū Abd Allāh al-Rāzī stand at opposite extremes, although each possesses some truth that the other lacks.

Abū al-Husayn claims that it is self-evident that the servant brings his action into being. Al-Rāzī likewise claims that it is self-evident that a newly originated, contingent action depends upon a determining factor whose presence necessitates the action’s occurrence and whose absence makes its occurrence impossible. Indeed, both speak truthfully concerning the self-evident knowledge they describe. Each side then believes that this self-evident knowledge invalidates what the other claims to be self-evident, but that is not so. Rather, both are truthful and correct concerning the self-evident knowledge they describe. Each errs only in denying what the other affirms regarding creation. For there is no incompatibility between the servant’s bringing his action into being and the fact that