“He sent it down with His knowledge” (1),
and the Almighty, Blessed and Exalted, also said:
“No female bears nor does she give birth except with His knowledge” (2),
and He, exalted, said:
“But if they do not respond to you, then know that it was sent down with the knowledge of Allah” (3).
He has mentioned knowledge in five passages of His Book, and He, exalted, said:
“They do not encompass anything of His knowledge except what He wills” (4).
He, Most High, also mentioned power, saying:
“Have they not seen that Allah, who created them, is mightier than they are in power?” (5)
and He said:
“the Lord of invincible might” (6),
and He, exalted, said:
“And the heaven We built with [Our] strength” (7).
Yet the Jahmiyyah and the Qadariyyah (8) claimed that Allah possesses neither knowledge, nor power, nor life.
(1) Surah an-Nisaʾ, verse 166.
(2) Surah Fatir, verse 11.
(3) Surah Hud, verse 14. This verse is omitted in manuscript S. In the original it reads anzala bi-ʿilmihi (He revealed by His knowledge).
(4) Surah al-Baqarah, verse 255.
(5) Surah Fussilat, verse 15.
(6) Surah adh-Dhariyat, verse 58.
(7) Surah adh-Dhariyat, verse 47.
(8) The term “al-Qadariyya” is omitted from al-Ibānah. The Qadariyya were those who denied divine predestination (qadar) and rejected it. The first to articulate this doctrine during the Companions’ era was Muʿabbid al-Juhānī of Basra; ʿUylan al-Dimashqī learned it from him. Muʿabbid had acquired the doctrine from an Iraqi Christian convert named Sawsan, who later reverted to Christianity. The Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) and the Tabiʿūn censured the Qadariyya. Shaykh al-Islām distinguishes three categories: 1. the shirkī (polytheistic) Qadariyya; 2. the majūsī (Magian) Qadariyya; 3. the Iblīsī Qadariyya.
See: Taj al-ʿArūs by al-Zabīdī, 3:483 (qadr); Majmūʿ Fatāwā Shaykh al-Islām, 8:256–261; al-Tabsīr fī al-Dīn by al-Isfarāyinī, p. 21; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ by al-Dhahabī, 4:185–187.