“The blind and the seeing are not equal.”

“Nor are darkness and light.”

“Nor shade and scorching heat.”

“Nor are the living and the dead equal.”

There are other such passages that make clear the differences between created beings and their division into the wretched and the blessed. As Allah Most High says:

“He is the One who created you, yet some of you are disbelievers and some are believers.”

And Allah Most High says:

“Some He has guided, while others have deserved to go astray.”

And Allah Most High says:

“He admits whom He wills into His mercy; but for the wrongdoers He has prepared a painful punishment.”

And Allah Most High says:

“On the Day the Hour comes, they will be divided.”

“As for those who believed and did righteous deeds, they will rejoice in a garden.”

“But those who disbelieved and denied Our signs and the meeting of the Hereafter will be brought into punishment.”

There are many similar passages in the Quran. It should be understood that various groups among the practitioners of speculative theology and Sufism have stumbled over this matter, arriving at positions worse than those of the Mu‘tazilah and other Qadariyyah like them. For the latter hold in high regard the divine commands and prohibitions, the promise of reward and threat of punishment, and obedience to Allah and His Messenger. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. Yet they went astray concerning divine decree, believing that affirming an all-encompassing will, comprehensive power, and creation extending to everything would necessarily impugn the Lord’s justice and wisdom. In this they were mistaken.

Opposing them were people among the scholars, devout worshippers, and practitioners of speculative theology and Sufism. They affirmed divine decree and believed that Allah is the Lord and Sovereign of all things; that whatever He wills comes to pass, and whatever He does not will does not come to pass; and that He is the Creator, Lord, and Sovereign of all things. This is good and correct. Yet they fell short regarding the divine commands and prohibitions, the promise of reward and threat of punishment. They went to such excess that their extremists fell into heresy, becoming like the polytheists who said:

“Had Allah willed, neither we nor our forefathers would have associated partners with Him, nor would we have forbidden