At most, the matter could be put thus: (1) Allah has made the one deserving of praise and reward, and the other deserving of blame and punishment. If He has made each deserving of what was stated, nothing precludes the one from being praised and the other condemned (2). His creation of these two counterparts, however, is like His creation of everything else. This pertains to the universal wisdom underlying the creation of (3) created beings, as has been discussed elsewhere.

According to the Qadarī view, no one deserves praise, commendation, or gratitude except someone whom Allah did not make a doer of good; and no one deserves blame except someone whom Allah did not make an evildoer (4). Rather, it must be someone whom [Allah] is incapable of (5) making a doer of either good or evil. Thus, according to him (6), praise and blame are possible only on condition that Allah [Most High] (7) be powerless, that His will and creative power be limited, and that events come into being without anyone bringing them into being.

[A Section from the Rāfidī’s Discourse on the Ahl al-Sunnah Doctrine of Divine Decree: An Act of Disobedience Proceeds Either from the Servant, from Allah, or from Both]

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[The Rāfidī] (8) said: “Another example is the division into alternatives mentioned by our master and patron, Imam Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar al-Kāzim (9). Abū Hanīfa asked him, when he was still a boy, ‘From whom does an act of disobedience proceed?’ Al-Kāzim (10) replied, ‘An act of disobedience proceeds either