agree with him. The early generations and the imams, however, agree in affirming causes and wise purposes in both creation and command.

In matters of “command,” for example, the jurists say: The causes establishing inheritance are “three”: kinship, marriage, and the bond of patronage established by manumission. They disagree over a pact of alliance, a person’s embracing Islam at another’s hands, and both parties being enrolled in the dīwān (state register). Some, such as Abū Hanīfah, regard these as causes of inheritance; others, such as Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī, do not. Two positions are reported from Ahmad.

Similarly, they say: Possessing the minimum threshold of wealth is a cause for zakah becoming obligatory; purely intentional, wrongful killing is a cause for retaliatory execution; and theft is a cause for amputation.

The jurists’ position is that a cause has an effect on its consequence and is not merely a sign. Only a group of speculative theologians who built upon Jahm’s position maintain that it is merely a sign. Some jurists also use the same language, but most jurists who do so contradict themselves: at times they adopt the position of the early generations and the imams, and at other times they adopt the position of these theologians.

Likewise, the jurists agree with the early generations in affirming wisdom and that rulings are prescribed for wise purposes. The same applies to wisdom in “creation.” The Quran is full of this concerning “creation and command”