Rather, they extend this claim to everything that exists: they will not allow that God created anything for a cause or a wise purpose; they refuse to grant that a human being possesses any power that produces what lies within his ability; nor do they concede that bodies have any innate nature or disposition. Instead they say, “The act merely occurs in His presence, not through it.” In doing so they oppose the Qur’an, the Sunnah, the consensus of the early generations and the leading imams, and the most self-evident dictates of reason.

For Allah, exalted is He, says:

“Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, the alternation of night and day, the ships that sail upon the sea bearing that which benefits people, the water that Allah sends down from the sky whereby He revives the earth after its death and scatters throughout it every kind of creature, the directing of the winds, and the clouds subjugated between heaven and earth—surely in all of these are signs for people who use their reason.” (Qur’an 2:164)

And He says:

“He it is Who sends the winds as harbingers of His mercy. When they bear heavy clouds We drive them to a dead land, then We send down water therewith and bring forth thereby every kind of fruit. In like manner We shall raise the dead—perhaps you will remember.” (Qur’an 7:57)

And He says:

“We sent down blessed water from the heaven, and with it We brought forth gardens and grain for harvest.” (Qur’an 50:9)

Similar statements abound in the Qur’an and the Sunnah: the Most High repeatedly mentions that He brings about one thing by means of another, telling us, for example, that He sends down the water with the clouds and that He revives the earth by means of the water.

The scholars are unanimous in affirming God’s wisdom in His creation and His command, and in affirming the existence of causes and forces, as we have cited in their own words. None of the early generations ever denied that the motions of the heavenly bodies may be part of the complete set of causes for events, just as Allah has made the blowing of the winds and the light of the sun and moon among the causes of happenings.

It is authentically reported in the two Ṣaḥīḥs that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said:

“The sun and the moon are two signs among the signs of Allah; they do not eclipse for the death or life of anyone. Rather, they are two signs by which Allah frightens His servants. When you see them, hasten to prayer.”