Says the Shaykh, our belief concerning this is the saying of Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq: There is neither (complete) compulsion (or constraint on human beings), nor (complete) delegation (or freedom), but the matter is midway between the two (extremes).1 He was asked to define what was meant by “an affair midway between the two.”

He said: For instance you see a man intent upon a crime and you dissuade him; then he commits the crime. Now, it is not because he did not accept (your advice) and you left him, that you are the person who commanded him to commit the crime.2

• 1. N بل أمر بين أمرين; D بل أمر بين أمرين. Sh. Mufid explains jabr and tafwid, Mur. ii. 142 -143.
• 2. MC, 157, 210, 213; BHA, no.119;FC, nos.95 -96; Affifi, 154.