the servants’ actions; nor is He characterized by them, nor do their consequences—which accrue to those characterized by them—accrue to Him. The fact that the Lord is the One who created them and made them the deed of another by creating the servant’s capacity, will (1), and action is an aspect that cannot apply to the servant, and none but Allah is capable of this.

Hence, most of those who affirm divine decree have said: The servants’ actions are created by Allah, yet they are the servant’s own deeds. If they are called the act (2) of Allah, what is meant is that they (3) are brought about by Him, [not that they] (4) are the act denoted by the verbal noun itself.

These are the scholars who distinguish between the act of creation and the created thing, and they constitute the majority of the leading scholars. This was the latter of al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā’s two views and the view of most of the followers of [Imam] (5) Ahmad (6). It was also the view of [his two sons, meaning the two sons of al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā] (7): al-Qādī Abū Hāzim (8) and [al-Qādī] Abū al-Husayn (9), as well as others.

The Third Aspect:

As for the statement, “Allah is too just to wrong His servant and hold him accountable for what he did not do,” [we] (10) affirm precisely what it entails, for Allah did not wrong His servant or hold him accountable