Likewise, it is authentically reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Adam and Moses debated. Moses said, ‘Our Lord, show us our father Adam, who caused us to be expelled from Paradise.’

“He then said to him, ‘You are Adam, the father of mankind, whom Allah created with His own Hand, into whom He breathed of His spirit, and before whom He had His angels prostrate. Why did you cause us and yourself to be expelled from Paradise?’

“Adam replied, ‘You are Moses, to whom Allah spoke directly and for whom He inscribed the Torah with His own Hand. How long before I was created do you find the following written against me: “Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray”?’

“He replied, ‘Forty years.’

“The Prophet said, ‘Thus Adam prevailed over Moses in argument.’”

This hadith is recorded in the two Sahīh collections on the authority of Abū Hurayrah. It is also transmitted with a good chain of narration on the authority of ‘Umar.

When some supposed that its apparent meaning was that a sinner could invoke divine decree against someone who reproached him for his sin, they fell into confusion over it. A group of the Qadariyyah, such as al-Jubbā’ī, rejected it as false, while a group of Ahl al-Sunnah offered weak interpretations in an effort to uphold the hadith. Their aim was sound, but their approach to refuting the Qadariyyah’s position and explaining the hadith was weak.

For example, one said that Adam prevailed over Moses in argument only because he was his father; another, because he had repented; another, because the sin occurred under one revealed law while the reproach came under another; and another, that the argument was valid because divine decree was invoked in the Hereafter