The doctrine of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamāʿah on this question is the path of balanced moderation: they neither neglect the truth as the denialist Qadariyyah did, nor do they go to the extremes of the fanatical sects.

The creed of the early generations of this community and its leading Imams is that every kind of obedience and sin, disbelief and corruption, takes place by Allah’s decree and predestination; there is no creator besides Him. Human acts, therefore, are created by Allah—their good and their evil, their fair and their foul. Yet the servant is not compelled to perform them; rather, he is capable of them, intends them, and actually carries them out.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

“Deeds, utterances, devotions, and sins are ‘from the servant’ in the sense that they inhere in him, arise through his own will and power, he is the one described by them and moved by them, and the legal ruling of those deeds returns to him. They are ‘from Allah’ in the sense that He created them as realities residing in the servant and made them his actions and acquisition, just as He brings effects into being through their causes. Thus they are from Allah—created by Him—and at the same time attributes of the servant, occurring through his capacity and acquisition. It is like our saying, ‘This fruit is from the tree’ or ‘This crop is from the earth,’ meaning that it grew out of them; and our saying, ‘It is from Allah,’ meaning He created it through them—there is no contradiction between the two.”

Al-Saffārīnī said:

“In summary, the position of the early Muslims and the verified scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah is that Allah, exalted be He, created the servant’s capacity, his will, and his deed, while the servant truly performs and brings about his own deed. Allah, glorified be He, made him the agent who performs it and brings it into existence. The Most High says, ‘You do not will except that Allah wills.’⦗1⦘ Hence He affirmed a will for the servant yet informed us that it occurs only under Allah’s will. This is the explicit statement of Ahl al-Sunnah: they affirm the servant’s will, while holding that it cannot exist except by the will of Allah …”

I would add that further confirmation of this lies in the fact that Allah has endowed the human being with reason, ability, and choice, and an action is reckoned for or against him only when these faculties are present. The insane, the mentally incapacitated, or the one acting under coercion are not held accountable for the words or deeds that issue from them; they are not taken to task for them—something