Those same people may even regard the legal duties laid down by revelation as a form of lutf (gracious inducement) that helps one to carry out what they call the rational duties. They will say, “The ultimate goal for which reward is granted is the deed itself, while knowledge is only a means that leads to it.” They extend this claim to the very knowledge of Allah, declaring, “Its obligation exists solely because it is a gracious inducement toward the performance of one’s practical, rational obligations.”

A third view is held by those who contend that Allah commanded these matters for no purpose to be sought, no underlying reason at all, but purely out of sheer will. This is the doctrine of the Jabriyya, the polar opposite of the Qadariyya—such as Jahm, al-Ashʿari, and many others from among