and he said:

“Allah has cursed whoever commits an offense or shelters an offender.”

He also said:

“If any one of you enters a state of ritual impurity, he must not pray until he performs ablution.”

The jurists say: Purification is of “two kinds”: purification from ritual impurity and purification from physical impurity. The speculative theologians say: People have differed concerning “those guilty of offenses” among those who face the qiblah—offenses such as usury, theft, and drinking wine. People also say, “So-and-so suffers from an affliction caused by the jinn,” and “So-and-so has developed an illness.” These are imperfections from which Allah is exalted far above.

If, however, “accidents” and “temporally originated events” are intended in a particular technical sense, that terminology was introduced only by those speculative theologians who coined it. It is neither the language of the Arabs nor that of any other nation; neither the language of the Quran nor of anything else; neither common usage nor the terminology of most who engage in scholarly inquiry. Rather, the inventors of this terminology are among those who introduce religious innovations into the Muslim community and fall under the Prophet’s condemnation, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

In any event, merely adopting this terminology and calling these attributes “accidents” and “temporally originated events” does not prevent them from being perfections whose possessor is more perfect than one who cannot possibly possess them, or who can possess them but does not.

“Furthermore,” suppose there are two beings: one possesses attributes of perfection which, according to their terminology, are accidents and temporally originated events—such as knowledge, power, action, and the exercise of force—while the other cannot possibly possess these attributes, which they call accidents and temporally originated events. The first would be more perfect, just as a living being possessing these attributes is more perfect than inanimate objects.