[Surah Yā Sīn: 12], although efficacy in this context has a broader scope than it does in the verse. Yet they say:
This efficacy is that of causes upon their effects, while Allah, Most High, *) (1) is the Creator of both the cause and the effect. Although He creates the cause, it must be joined by another cause, and there must also be an opposing factor that may impede it. Thus, although Allah (2) creates it, its effect is not fully realized unless Allah creates the other cause and removes the impediments (3).
However, the view he related is held only by some who affirm divine decree, such as al-Asharī and those jurists who agreed with him among the followers of Mālik, al-Shāfiī, and Ahmad. They do not affirm that created things possess powers or natural properties (4), and they say that Allah acts in conjunction with them, not through them. They also say:
The servant’s power has no efficacy in bringing about the act.
More extreme still is al-Asharī’s assertion that Allah is the agent of the servant’s act, that the servant’s deed (5) is not an act performed by the servant but merely an acquisition on his part (6), and that it is solely Allah’s act (7). And the majority of
(1) The passage between the two asterisks is omitted only in M.
(2) B reads: “Thus, its effect is not fully realized except in conjunction with Allah’s creation of it, not through it, by Allah Most High creating…”; A: “Thus, its effect is not fully realized except in conjunction with Allah’s creation of it, except through it, by Allah Most High creating…”; N: “Thus, its effect is not fully realized except in conjunction with Allah’s creation of it, by Allah creating…”; M: “Thus, the effect is not fully realized except in conjunction with Allah’s creation of it, by Allah creating…”.
(3) M alone reads: “the impediment.”
(4) B and A read: “the powers of natural properties.”
(5) N and M read: “act.”
(6) B reads: “but rather an acquisition on his part”; M: “but not even an acquisition on his part.”
(7) N reads: “an act belonging to Allah alone.” Mustajā Zādah summarized Ibn Taymiyya’s discussion beginning with the words, “However, the view he related is held by some who affirm divine decree,” through this point. He then commented: “I say: The astonishing thing is that the Muʿtazila hold that the servant’s power to bring things into existence and produce effects does not come from Allah Most High. Consequently, most adherents of the truth accuse them of associating partners with Allah. They went so far as to say: ‘The Magians affirm only one partner, namely Ahriman, whereas the Muʿtazila affirm for Allah Most High innumerable partners from among humankind, the jinn, and animals, because they maintain that these creatures bring their own voluntary acts into existence.’”