The Answer

[From Several Perspectives: First]: This (1) rests on the question of whether obedience consists in complying with a command or in acting in accordance with the will. That, in turn, rests on whether a command necessarily entails will, and whether the very act of demanding and calling for something is itself willing it, necessarily entails willing it, or is neither.

It is well known (2) that many speculative thinkers among those who affirm (3) divine decree maintain that obedience consists in complying with the command, not in acting in accordance with the will, and that a command does not necessarily entail will. The discussion concerning this is well known. This being so, the Qadarī has demonstrated neither that his own position is sound nor that his opponents’ position is false. Rather, he has merely asserted without proof that obedience consists in acting in accordance with the will. If his opponents reply, “We do not concede that,” this is sufficient here, since no evidence has been provided.

Second: They argue that a command does not necessarily entail will on the basis of what was stated above (4): Allah is the Creator of His servants’ actions, and He creates them only by His will, yet He has not commanded unbelief (5), wickedness, or disobedience. It is therefore known that He may (6), by His will, create what He has not commanded.

Moreover, it has been established by the Book, the Sunnah (7), and scholarly consensus that if a person swore that he would certainly pay him (8) what he was owed tomorrow (9), if Allah Most High willed, but the following day passed without his doing so, despite