 Al-Ghazâlî’s cosmology of God’s determination and His control over events in His creation through chains of causes (singl. sabab) aimed at safeguarding the Sunni doctrine of omnipotence and divine pre-determination against the criticism of Mu’tazilites and Shiites. Humans have only the impression of a free will (ikhtiyâr). In reality they are compelled to choose what they deem is the best action (khayr) among the present alternatives. Avicenna’s determinist ontology, where every event in the created world is by itself contingent (mumkim al-wujûd bi-dhâtihi) yet also necessitated by something else (wâjib al-wujûd bi-ghayrihi), provided a suitable interpretation of God’s pre-determination and is readily adopted by al-Ghazâlî although he never admits that or uses Avicenna’s language. In Avicenna the First Being, which is God, makes all other beings and events necessary. In al-Ghazâlî God’s will, which is distinct from His essence, necessitates all beings and events in creation. The adaptation of fundamental assumptions in Avicenna’s cosmology together with an almost wholesale acceptance of Avicenna’s psychology and his prophetology led Frank (1992, 86) to conclude “that from a theological standpoint most of [Avicenna’s] theses which he rejected are relatively tame and inconsequential compared to those in which he follows the philosopher.”