He was created for it, and everyone awaits what has been decreed for him. Whoever was created for bliss will be guided to ease. And whoever was created for hell will be guided to hardship. The happy one is happy in his mother's womb. And the wretched one is wretched in his mother's womb. All of that is by His decree and His destiny. Nothing escapes His estimation, and not a speck moves on the earth except by His decree.

Whatever has been decreed by Allah Almighty will inevitably come to pass, without increase or decrease. "So whatever has preceded His decree and destiny is bound to appear, and all creatures originate from His decree and destiny. The Creator, Glorified be He, manifested them and decreed them in His eternity without increase or decrease. There is no changing what is decreed, and no altering what is inevitable."

The decree and destiny of Allah have not stirred controversy among the scholars except regarding human actions and their decree. It is this that has stirred their controversy, due to the responsibility it entails for humans and their deserving of reward and punishment. It appears from the previous sayings of the Mahdi that he is among those who affirm absolute predestination and emphasize that human actions are included in it. And before he agreed with the Ash'aris on this, Abu al-Mahasin himself had established it in "Al-Ibana," and his followers further detailed and developed it.

If human actions are decreed by Allah, is there any meaning left to His commanding them to do some things and refrain from others? Ibn Tumart, despite his firm affirmation of divine predestination, paid increasing attention to divine commands and discussed them in several places in his epistles. For him, divine commands are binding on humans by virtue of their humanity, without restriction of time or place.

See: Al-Ash'ari, "Al-Ibana," p. 225, where he presents a collection of hadiths used to prove the existence of divine predestination and its inclusion of human actions. See: "Al-Aqida: Ibn Tumart," p. 37-236. Ibid., p. 236 onwards.