“It burned by the decree of Allah Most High.”

Another said, “Allah did not decree this.” During the time of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, no one denied divine power. When these people introduced the innovation of denying divine decree, the surviving Companions, such as 'Abd Allāh ibn 'Umar, 'Abd Allāh ibn 'Abbās, and Wāthilah ibn al-Asqa', refuted them. This denial was most prevalent in Basra and Syria, with only a little of it in the Hijāz. Most of the early scholars’ condemnations of the Qadariyyah concerned these people. Thus Wakī' ibn al-Jarrāh said:

“The Qadariyyah say, ‘Matters are not determined beforehand, and Allah has not decreed the recording or the deeds.’ The Murji’ah say, ‘Verbal profession suffices in place of deeds.’ The Jahmiyyah say, ‘Knowledge suffices in place of verbal profession and deeds.’”

Wakī' said, “All of this is disbelief.” This was also narrated by Ibn . . . (1).

However, when discussion of divine decree became widespread and many speculative thinkers and devout worshippers became involved in it, the majority of the Qadariyyah came to acknowledge Allah’s prior knowledge, denying only that His will and creation encompass everything. There are two reports concerning 'Amr ibn 'Ubayd’s denial of the prior written record. Mālik, al-Shāfi'ī, Ahmad, and others declared the earlier group disbelievers on account of their position. As for this later group, they are misguided innovators, but they are not on the same footing as the earlier group. Among them were many scholars and devout worshippers from whom knowledge was recorded.

Al-Bukhārī and Muslim included narrations from a number of them, but they did not include narrations from those who actively propagated this belief. This is the position of the jurists among the scholars of hadith, such as Ahmad and others: anyone who propagates an innovation deserves punishment to protect people from his harm, even if his inward conviction is based on independent scholarly judgment. The least punishment he deserves is to be shunned, so that he holds no standing in religion