As for those who invoke divine decree to set aside commands, prohibitions, promise and warning, they resemble the polytheists of whom Allah said:
“Those who associate partners with Allah will say, ‘Had Allah willed, neither we nor our forefathers would have associated partners with Him, nor would we have forbidden anything.’ Likewise, those before them denied the truth until they tasted Our punishment. Say, ‘Do you have any knowledge that you can produce for us? You follow nothing but conjecture, and you do nothing but guess.’”
Allah Most High also said:
“Those who associate partners with Allah said, ‘Had Allah willed, neither we nor our forefathers would have worshipped anything besides Him, nor would we have forbidden anything without His authority.’ Those before them did likewise. Are the messengers responsible for anything other than conveying the message clearly?”
Allah Most High also said:
“When they are told, ‘Spend from what Allah has provided for you,’ the disbelievers say to the believers, ‘Should we feed those whom Allah could have fed, had He willed? You are plainly astray.’”
Allah Most High also said:
“They said, ‘Had the Most Merciful willed, we would not have worshipped them.’ They have no knowledge of that; they do nothing but guess.”
Those who invoke divine decree to set aside commands and prohibitions thus belong to the same category as the polytheists who rejected the messengers, and their condition is worse than that of the Magians. Their argument is invalid before their Lord; His wrath is upon them, and theirs will be a severe punishment.
Some of them imagine that Adam invoked divine decree before Moses to justify his sin, and that this is permissible for the elect among Allah’s allies who witness divine decree. This is a grave error. Moses reproached Adam only for the act of disobedience that affected his descendants as a result of his eating from the tree. He said:
“Why did you cause us and yourself to be expelled from Paradise?”
When calamities occur, the servant is commanded to turn to divine decree, for the servant’s happiness lies in doing what is commanded, avoiding what is forbidden, and submitting to what has been decreed. Allah Most High said: