who say:

“A capable agent can give preponderance to one of the two alternatives open to him (1) over the other without any preponderating factor.”

This is false, even though some affirmers of divine decree agree with them on it.

As for the affirmers of divine decree who oppose them on this principle, one group among them, when discussing questions of divine decree and the creation of human acts, (2 say: “A capable agent cannot give preponderance to one of two possible acts over the other without a preponderating factor.” 2) (2) Yet when discussing questions concerning Allah’s acts, the origination of the universe, the distinction between an agent acting by necessity and one acting by choice, and disputing with the eternalists, you find many of them arguing against the latter in the manner of those Qadariyya and coercionist Jahmiyya who maintain that an agent acting by choice gives preponderance to one of two possible acts without any preponderating factor.

Thus their inconsistency became (3) evident in these [major] (4) principles, in which they vacillate between the principles of the Qadariyya and those of the coercionist Jahmiyya—who deny the true reality of command and prohibition, promise and threat, and Allah’s attribute (5) as it pertains to His creation and command—and the principles of the polytheistic eternalist philosophers.

[Critique of the Polytheistic Greek Philosophers]

Although they are Sabians, they are among the Sabians (6) who are polytheists, not among the upright monotheistic Sabians whom the Quran praises. Those people worship (7) the stars, build temples for them (8), and set up idols within those temples; and this is the religion of