Rather, those who say that He is the Creator of all things [from among Ahl al-Sunnah and the Shi'a] (1) say:

He created the acts of His servants, for they are among the totality of things. Some created things are harmful to certain people, including acts (2) that constitute injustice on the part of those who perform them, even though they do not constitute injustice on the part of their Creator. Likewise, when He creates a servant’s act of fasting, He is not Himself fasting; when He creates his act of circumambulation, He is not Himself circumambulating; when He creates his bowing and prostration, He is neither bowing nor prostrating (3); and when He creates his hunger and thirst, He is neither hungry nor thirsty. Thus, when Allah Most High creates an attribute or act in a locus, He is not Himself characterized by that attribute or act. Otherwise, He would be characterized by every accident He creates.

Yet this is precisely where the Jahmiyya among the Mu'tazila erred, as did those among the Shi'a who followed them. They say that Allah has no speech except what He creates in something other than Himself, and that He has no act except what is separate from Him. Thus (4), in their view, neither act nor speech subsists in Him. They held (5) that His speech—by which He addresses (6) His angels and His servants, by which He spoke to Moses, and which He sent down to His servants—is what He created in something other than Himself.

It is therefore said to them (7): When an attribute subsists in a locus, its ruling pertains to that locus,