the people of the Fire until only a cubit separates him from it; then what has been written overtakes him, and he performs the deeds of the people of Paradise and enters Paradise.’” Reports like this are numerous.

Most Qadarites acknowledge this; only their extremists deny it, such as those mentioned to ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar in the hadith Muslim narrated at the beginning of his Sahīh. He was told:

“There are people among us who recite the Quran and seek knowledge, claiming that there is no divine decree and that events arise anew, without any prior decree.” He replied: “When you meet those people, tell them that I disavow them and that they have nothing to do with me.”

For this reason, the imams—such as Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Ahmad—declared those who said that Allah did not know His servants’ deeds until they performed them to be disbelievers, unlike the other Qadarites.

The point here is that the vast majority of Muslims disagree with the Qadarites, whether Muʿtazilīs or others. The vast majority of Muslims also acknowledge the causes that Allah has established as causes in His creation and His commands, and acknowledge the wise purposes He intends in His creation and His commands.

They affirm what Allah says in the Quran:

“And the water Allah sends down from the sky, giving life thereby to the earth after its death.”

He also says:

“We sent down water through it, and brought forth through it fruits of every kind.”

There are many such passages in the Quran and Sunnah. This is the position of the majority of Muslims: they say that something was brought about through a particular cause. They do not say, as those who deny causes do, that it was brought about when those causes occurred, but not through them. These matters are discussed at length elsewhere.