this view can only be unjust and inconsistent. When someone else harms or wrongs him, he demands that the offender be punished and repays him, refusing to excuse him on the grounds of divine decree. Yet when he himself is the wrongdoer, he invokes divine decree in his own defence. Thus, no one invokes divine decree as an excuse except to follow his desires without knowledge; he is invariably defending falsehood, with no truth on his side. The polytheists likewise invoked it, and Allah Most High said:

“Say, ‘Do you have any knowledge that you can produce for us? You follow nothing but conjecture, and you do nothing but lie.’”

And He said:

“Those before them did likewise. Are the messengers responsible for anything but clearly conveying the message?”

For this reason, when anyone showed hostility towards these polytheists who invoked divine decree, they would confront him, fight him and punish him. They would not accept his argument if he said, “Had Allah willed, I would not have shown hostility towards you.” Rather, they continually condemned those who committed injustice and aggression, refusing to accept their appeal to divine decree. Yet when the truth came to them from their Lord, they began invoking divine decree to resist it. Thus, they sought to reject Allah’s commands and prohibitions by an argument they would not allow anyone to use against their own commands and prohibitions. Indeed, no rational person would allow such an argument to be used to deny his rights.

They therefore opposed their Lord and His messengers with an argument they would not allow to be used against any human being or anyone’s messengers. According to their position, a created being’s commands, prohibitions and rights carried greater weight than Allah’s commands, prohibitions and rights over His servants. Allah’s commands, prohibitions and rights over His servants were less inviolable in their eyes than a created being’s commands, prohibitions and rights over others. For Allah’s right over His servants is that they worship Him and associate nothing with Him, as is established in the two Sahīh collections, on the authority of Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal, who said:

“I was riding behind the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, on a donkey. He said, ‘O Mu‘ādh, do you know what Allah’s right over His servants is?’ I said, ‘Allah and His Messenger know best.’ He said, ‘His right