truly disbelievers, and We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment.”

“But those who believe in Allah and His messengers and make no distinction between any of them—to them He will grant their rewards. And Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.”

If someone who believes in some and disbelieves in others is truly a disbeliever, then what of someone who rejects everything and acknowledges neither Allah’s commands and prohibitions nor His promises and threats, but instead disregards all of this, invoking divine decree as an excuse? His disbelief is greater than that of someone who believes in some and disbelieves in others.

The falsity of these people’s claim becomes clear in several ways:

First: Each of them either considers divine decree an excuse for a person or does not. If divine decree is an excuse for a person, then it is an excuse for everyone, since all are equally subject to it. It would therefore follow that he must not condemn anyone who wrongs him, insults him, takes his wealth, corrupts his household, cuts off his head, or destroys crops and livestock. Yet all these people are liars who contradict themselves.

Each of them continually censures one person, hates another, and opposes another. Indeed, they hate, show hostility toward, and condemn the very person who challenges their views. If divine decree were an excuse for someone who commits forbidden acts and neglects obligations, they would have to refrain from censuring or hating anyone, or calling anyone a wrongdoer, no matter what he did.

It is well known that no one can act in this way. If people did so, the world would perish. Thus, their claim is demonstrably unsound according to reason, just as it constitutes disbelief according to the revealed law. They are liars and fabricators when they claim that divine decree is an excuse for a person.

Second: This would imply that Iblīs, Pharaoh, and the people of Noah