causes are mere correlations, not necessitating factors. Thus, according to them, when a man breaks a glass vessel, it does not break because he broke it; rather, it breaks when he breaks it. When fire burns something, that thing is not burned because of the fire; rather, it burns in the presence of the fire, not through it. Hence, when a person eats until he is full, he does not become full through eating; he merely becomes full while eating!

They say that Allah is the one who produces the burning, but His act occurs in conjunction with an observable created thing. In their view, therefore, there is no connection whatsoever between a cause and its effect; it is merely a matter of conjunction. Accordingly, the eye does not, in their view, inflict harm through envy. Rather, envy occurs when the eye’s sight of the envied person coincides with its being brought into existence through an eternal power. This act of bringing into existence is not itself created, lest Allah become a locus of temporal occurrences! Thus, there is neither envy nor an evil eye; the occurrence of envy merely coincides with the gaze falling upon the envied person. Nor is envy among the servant’s acquired acts, despite their assertion that he possesses an acquisition for which he is requited and rewarded!

Strangely, they declare anyone who disagrees with this position to be an unbeliever; stranger still, no one else holds this position! They therefore declare the rest of the Muslim nation to be unbelievers. There is no power or might except through Allah. Among their doctrinal primers that continue to be taught to this day are the following lines:

Efficient action belongs to none but the One—
The All-Subduing, Majestic and Exalted alone.
Whoever ascribes it to nature or necessary causation,
That is unbelief among the people of the faith.
Whoever ascribes it to an inherent power
Is an innovator—so pay him no heed. (1)

The meaning of these lines is that whoever affirms the transference of the body’s natural state, or says that the eye affects the envied person and is the cause of that effect, is, in their view, an unbeliever. Whoever says that the eye possesses an inherent power that causes envy is likewise, in their view, an innovator. This is despite their position that faith consists solely of assent: that is, whoever assents is a believer and one of the people of Paradise, even if he has not uttered the testimony of faith or prayed—indeed, even if he has never performed a single good deed. Yet whoever disagrees with them on this particular issue is either a misguided innovator or an unbeliever!