have returned to the truth: I renounce these opinions, and I take the engagement to refute the Mutazilites and expose their infamy and turpitude."[116] He then, adopting scholastic methods, started a school of {130} thought of his own, which was in the main a return to orthodoxy. The Ash'arian doctrines differ slightly from the tenets of the Sifatians of which sect Al-Ash'ari's disciples form a branch. The Ash'arians hold-- (i.) That the attributes of God are distinct from His essence, yet in such a way as to forbid any comparison being made between God and His creatures. They say they are not "_'ain_ nor _ghair_:" not of His essence, nor distinct from it: _i.e.,_ they cannot be compared with any other things. (ii.) That God has one eternal will from which proceed all things, the good and the evil, the useful and the hurtful. The destiny of man was written on the eternal table before the world was created. So far they go with the Sifatians, but in order to preserve the moral responsibility of man they say that he has power to convert will into action. But this power cannot create anything new for then God's sovereignty would be impaired; so they say that God in His providence so orders matters that whenever "a man desires to do a certain thing, good or bad, the action corresponding to the desire is, there and then, created by God, and, as it were, fitted on to the desire." Thus it seems as if it came naturally from the will of the man, whereas it does not. This action is called Kasb (acquisition) because it is acquired by a special creative act of God. It is an act directed to the obtaining of profit, or the removing of injury: the term is, therefore, inapplicable to the Deity. Abu Bakr-al-Bakillani, a disciple of Al-Ash'ari, says: "The essence or substance of the action is the effect of the power of God, but its being an action of obedience, such as prayer, or an action of disobedience, such as fornication, are qualities of the action, which proceed from the power of man." The Imam Al-Haramain (419-478 A.H.) held "that the actions of men were effected by the power which God has created in man." Abu Ishaq al Isfarayain says: "That which maketh impression, or hath influence on action, is a compound of the power of God and the power of man." {131} (iii.) They say that the word of God is eternal, though they acknowledge that the vocal sounds used in the Quran, which is the manifestation of that word, are created. They say, in short, that the Quran contains (1) the eternal word which existed in the essence of God before time was; and (2) the word which consists of sounds and combinations of letters. This last they call the created word.