For these people disputed over the underlying reason for Allah’s action—glorified and exalted is He—and sought to establish something by which they could rationalize His act, measuring Him, Most High, against created beings. In so doing they plunged into the depths of error: some asserted that His act has always been inseparably bound to Him; others claimed that there are two agents; still others maintained that He performs some acts and the creatures perform others; and yet others alleged that whatever He decreed He never commanded its opposite, and whatever He commanded He never decreed its contrary. Their confusion arose when they set His action against His command: one faction affirmed the Divine decree but denied the command, while another affirmed the command but denied the decree. Both presumed that the coexistence of the two was impossible, and each party invalidated itself by rejecting what the other affirmed.

Such contention usually breaks out when people begin arguing over a minor point before it has been firmly established and all its dimensions properly gathered. For this reason it was said: “Whatever you understand of it, act upon it; and whatever you do not understand, refer it to the one who knows it.”

The purpose of mentioning these hadiths is to alert the reader, through the hadith, to what is likewise found in the Qur’an, such as His saying: “And you plunged [into idle talk] just as they plunged” (al-Tawbah 9:69).