529 — Abū Bakr Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Hamīd al-Wāsitī narrated to me, saying: Abū Mūsā Muhammad ibn al-Muthannā narrated to us, saying: Muammal ibn Ismāīl narrated to us, saying: Sufyān al-Thawrī narrated to us, saying: A shaykh narrated to me—Muammal said, “They claimed that he was Abū Rajā al-Khurāsānī”—that Adī ibn Artāh wrote to Umar ibn Abd al-Azīz:

“We have among us people who say ⦗931⦘, ‘There is no divine decree.’ Write to me with your opinion, and write to me with the ruling concerning them.”

He wrote back:

“In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.

“From Allah’s servant Umar, Commander of the Faithful, to Adī ibn Artāh. To proceed: I praise Allah before you; there is no god but Him.

“To proceed: I counsel you to fear Allah, to observe moderation in carrying out His command, to follow the Sunnah of His Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), and to abandon what the innovators have introduced in matters already governed by His Sunnah, the burden of which people were thereby spared. You must adhere to the Sunnah, for the One who established it knew the error, misstep, folly, and excessive probing found in opposing it.

“Be content for yourself with what those people accepted for themselves. They stopped where they did upon knowledge and refrained with penetrating insight. They were better able to uncover the reality of matters and would have had the strongest claim to any merit it might have contained. If you say, ‘It is a matter that arose after them,’ it was introduced after them only by someone who followed a path other than their Sunnah and considered himself above them. They are indeed the forerunners. They spoke concerning it ⦗932⦘ sufficiently and explained enough to satisfy. Whoever falls short of them is deficient, and whoever goes beyond them brings loss upon himself. Others fell short of them and went astray, while they remained between those extremes upon straight guidance.

“You wrote asking me about divine decree. By Allah Most High’s permission, you have come upon one well informed. No newly raised issue or innovation has ever appeared among the Muslims concerning anything clearer or more firmly established than divine decree. It was mentioned even in the benighted Age of Ignorance: people spoke of it in their conversations and expressed it in their poetry, consoling themselves through it for their calamities. Then Islam came and only gave it greater strength and emphasis. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) then mentioned it in far more than one, two, or three hadiths. The Muslims heard it from the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and spoke of it both during the Messenger of Allah’s lifetime (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and after his death—with certainty, affirmation, submission to their Lord, and acknowledgment that they were too weak for anything ⦗933⦘ whatsoever to occur without being encompassed by His knowledge, recorded in His Book, and governed by His decree.

“If you say, ‘Allah Most High has said such-and-such in His Book, so why did Allah Most High reveal that such-and-such is so?’ they certainly read from it what you have read and understood of its interpretation what you do not know. Yet after that they said, ‘It is all written and decreed. He has written wretchedness. Whatever is decreed will come to pass. Whatever He wills occurs, and whatever He does not will does not occur. We possess no power to harm or benefit ourselves.’ Despite that, they continued to hope and fear.

“You wrote asking me for the ruling concerning them. Whenever one of them is brought before you, give him a painful beating and confine him in prison. If he repents of his evil doctrine, then release him; otherwise, have him beheaded.

“Peace be upon you.”