er of controlling the result of that action.

(ii). If it be granted that man has the power to _originate_ {175} an act
it is necessary that he should know all acts, because a creator should be
independent in act and choice. Intention must be conditioned by knowledge.
To this the Mutazilites well reply that a man need not know the length of a
road before he walks, or the structure of the throat before he talks.

(iii). Suppose a man wills to move his body and God at the same time wills
it to be steady, then if both intentions come to pass there will be a
collection of opposites; if neither, a removal of opposites; if the
exaltation of the first, an unreasonable preference.

(iv). If man can create an act, some of his works will be better than some
of the works of God, _e.g._ a man determines to have faith: now faith is a
better thing than reptiles, which are created by God.

(v). If man is free to act, why can he not make at once a human body; why
does he need to thank God for grace and faith?

(vi). But better far than all argument, the orthodox say, is the testimony
of the Book. "All things have we created under a fixed decree." (Sura liv.
49). "When God created you and _that ye make_." (Sura xxxvii. 94). "Some of
them there were whom God guided and there were others decreed to err."
(Sura xvi. 38). As God decrees faith and obedience He must be the causer of
it, for "on the hearts of these hath God graven the Faith." (Sura lviii.
22). "It is he who causeth you to laugh and weep, to die and make alive."
(Sura liii. 44). "If God pleased He would surely bring them, one and all,
to the guidance." (Sura vi. 36). "Had God pleased, He had guided you all
aright." (Sura vi. 150). "Had the Lord pleased, He would have made mankind
of one religion." (Sura xi. 120). "God will mislead whom he pleaseth, and
whom He pleaseth He will place upon the straight path." (Sura vi. 39.)
Tradition records that the Prophet said: "God is the maker of all makers
and of their actions."[169]

{176}

The Mutazilites took up the opposite side of this great question and
said:--

(i). If man has no power to will or to do, then what is the difference
between praising God and sinning against Him; between faith and infidelity;
good and evil; what is the use of commands and prohibitions; rewards and
punishments; promises and threats; what is the use of prophets, books, &c.

(ii). Some acts of men are bad, such as tyranny and polytheism. If these
a