of the causes whose presence makes the servant an agent and renders it impossible for him not to be one. Thus, whatever Allah knows the servant will do, He creates the causes through which he comes to do it.

They say that the servants’ actions came into existence from the servant’s side, not from Allah’s. They also say that Allah, exalted is He, is the cause of their existence, just as they say that Allah is their Creator. Yet they say that He neither brings them into being nor makes them. They further say that an acquired will arises in the servant.

They may, however, say that it arises through a necessary will created by Allah, as stated by Judge Abū Khāzim(1) and others. Or they may instead say that the servant brings his own will into being without qualification, as the Qadariyya have said. These people nevertheless maintain that the Lord facilitates the creation of the causes that arouse a motive to carry out what He knows the servant will carry out](2).

But [on the majority’s view](3), whoever says that(4) the act is identical with the thing effected—[as held by Jahm ibn Safwān and those who agree with him, such as al-Asharī and a group of the followers of Mālik, al-Shāfiī, and Ahmad](5)—holds that the servants’ actions are Allah’s act.

If he also says, “They are the servants’ act as well,”(6) he is thereby committed to saying that a single act has two agents, as is reported of Abū Ishāq al-Isfarāyīnī.(7) If, however, he does not say, “They are the servants’ act,”