, may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and disagreement with those who face the qiblah and profess adherence to the religion.

As for disagreement with those outside the religion, it is of three kinds: disagreement with those who deny the Maker and maintain that the world is eternal; disagreement with those who maintain that the world came into being and affirm the Maker, but reject prophethood altogether, such as the Brahmins; and disagreement with those who accept some prophethood but deny the prophethood of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

He thus treated affirming the Maker and holding that the world came into being as one position, and denying the Maker and holding that the world is eternal as another. He did not mention a third position combining affirmation of the Maker with the eternity of the world, because most speculative theologians regard these as virtually incompatible and therefore do not treat this as a distinct position.

Al-Rāzī and those like him, however, use the term Dahriyyah more broadly, including within it this category, which represents the position of the Peripatetics—Aristotle and his followers—as well as that of others. Thus, in his book Nihāyat al-ʿUqūl, he wrote:

“The fourth question concerns the classification of unbelievers. He said: ‘Unbelievers either acknowledge the prophethood of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or they do not. If they do not, they either acknowledge some prophethood—as do the Jews, Christians, and others—or they acknowledge none. The latter either affirm an agent acting by choice, as do the Brahmins, or they do not affirm such an agent, as is the case with the Dahriyyah in their various categories.’”

Others, such as Ibn al-Haysam and those like him, likewise said: “The Dahriyyah—both those who deny the Maker and those who affirm Him—maintain that the world, in the form