The question of divine justice, studied in the previous chapter, involves attempts to understand God's work in a manner that fits with human morality – some theologians would say morality simpliciter. The general framework of moral theory, in addition to elements specific to divine agency such as assistance and corruption, serves as a prelude to the ultimate concern of theologians: the creatures’ destiny in their interaction with the Creator.

This chapter investigates how Murtaḍā's theology makes sense of religious experience. It first covers his definition of the human being and touches on the history of this sensitive debate in the Imami context, and then proceeds to his view on human agency inasmuch as it affects human responsibility before God. The next section analyses God's general act of creation in light of the considerations that govern moral theory, given that this act must be understood before the more specific question of human experience can be addressed. This discussion is followed by an examination of Murtaḍā's view on the relationship between humans and God in the form of moral obligation, covering the roots, duration and scope of moral obligation and how it materialises in real life.

These were controversial topics in Islamic theology. Like the debate on divine essence and attributes, the debate on human agency became a question of dogmatism and group identity. The origins of the controversy need not be foreign to the concerns of the Muslim community, although the avowed positions coincide neatly with the then available views of major religions and intellectual movements. Despite some attempts to propose less polarising solutions, the major fault line dividing believers in human agency, on the one hand, and those who ascribed human actions to God's work, on the other, was not overcome, as attested by the name calling practised by the two camps: the former would refer to their adversaries as ‘determinists’ (mujbira; mujabbira; jabriyya), whereas the latter would dub the former ‘deniers of God's decree’ (qadariyya) – although this term has a more complex history in that both groups tried to apply it polemically, but the latter group was more successful.