526 — Al-Firyābī informed us, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn Abd Allah narrated to us, saying: Alī ibn Thābit informed us, from Umar ibn Dharr, who said: We sat with Umar ibn Abd al-Azīz, and one of us spoke, glorifying Allah Most High and reminding us through His signs. When he had finished, Umar ibn Abd al-Azīz spoke. He praised Allah and extolled Him, bore witness to the testimony of truth, and said to the speaker, “Allah Most High is indeed as you have described and exalted Him. Yet had Allah Most High willed that He not ⦗928⦘ be disobeyed, He would not have created Iblīs. He has made this clear in a verse of the Quran: whoever knows it knows it, and whoever is ignorant of it is ignorant of it.” He then recited:

“Indeed, you and what you worship cannot lead anyone astray from Him except one who is to burn in Hell” [Al-Sāffāt: 162].

Umar ibn Dharr said, “There was a man among us who held the view of the Qadariyya. Allah Most High benefited him through the words of Umar ibn Abd al-Azīz, and he recanted what he had formerly maintained. Thereafter, he became one of the staunchest opponents of the Qadariyya.”