one part of Allah’s Book against another.” From this arose the doctrine of the Magians and the Qadariyyah—the Magians of this community—when they engaged in speculation about divine justice and permissibility, using arguments derived from this argument, just as the doctrines of the Jahmiyyah derive from that argument.

The eternalists then thought that by affirming the eternity of the world they would escape these specious arguments. Yet what they fell into was worse than what the Magians and the Qadariyyah had fallen into. Hence the polytheists and Sabians who affirm the eternity of the world, together with the philosophers who side with them, were worse than the Magians and those who side with them among the Qadariyyah, the Mu'tazilah and others.