namely, Allah’s power, through which He has power over all things; that, as He states, “Every day He is engaged in some affair” (Qur’an 55:29); and that His answering the supplication of a believing servant lies wholly outside the servant’s own strength and the dispositions of his body and soul. They believe that Allah overrides ordinary patterns for His prophets—both to prove their truthfulness and to honour them—and for other wise purposes of His.
He likewise breaks those patterns for His saints: at times to reinforce His religion, at times to hasten a share of their reward in this world, at times as a favour by bringing a blessing or warding off a harm, and for other reasons besides. They hold that Allah wards off, through the righteous deeds and lawful supplications He has commanded, whatever He has placed in the inherent forces of bodies and souls. They pay no heed to fantasies that sound rational or scriptural proofs have shown to be false, nor do they practise what the Sacred Law has forbidden, even if someone imagines it to possess an effect.
(1) Manuscript B reads: ijabatu kharija.
(2) That is, the servant’s soul, body, and spirit.
(3) From this point up to the words thawabuhum fi al-dunya (“their reward in this world”)—about a line and a half—is missing in manuscript T.
(4) The printed edition reads: yaruddu ma amarahum (“it repels what He has enjoined upon them”).
(5) The printed edition reads: ila ma jaʿalah (“to what He has appointed”).
(6) Its meaning—Allah knows best—is that Allah turns away from the believing servant any harm issuing from bodily forces or the natural dispositions of souls, thanks to his supplication and righteous deeds.
(7) From here up to the phrase kama lahu turuq (“as it has pathways”)—roughly one line—is omitted in manuscript T.
(8) In the printed edition a passage of roughly half a page is out of sequence. Directly after the phrase wa-in zanna anna lahu taʾthiran (“even if he thinks it has an effect”) the printed text inserts the section wa-bil-jumla fa-l-ʿilm bi-anna hadha huwa al-sabab (“in sum, the knowledge that this is the real cause”) up to min bab al-nahyi ʿalayhi kama taqaddam (“as a form of prohibition, as mentioned earlier”). In all the manuscripts this segment actually appears two pages later, after the words hatta la yumayyizu bayna al-haqq wa-l-batil (“so that they no longer distinguish between truth and falsehood”). The order followed here accords with the unanimous manuscript evidence and fits the context more naturally.