in comparison with theirs. They recite the Quran, but it does not pass beyond their throats. They pass out of Islam as an arrow passes through its quarry. Their distinguishing sign is that among them is a man with a malformed hand, bearing something like a piece of flesh that wobbles back and forth.” Events unfolded just as he had foretold when ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib fought them at al-Nahrawān: this man was found exactly as the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had described him.

He also foretold fighting the Turks and described them, saying:

“The Hour will not come until you fight the Turks: small-eyed, ruddy-cheeked, dulaf-nosed, wearing footwear made of hair, their faces like shields covered with layers of hide.”

The Muslims did indeed fight these Turks and others when they emerged. Such reports from His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, are too numerous to recount. Yet he knows only what Allah has taught him. If he knows many of the deeds that Allah’s servants will perform, what, then, of the One who created him and taught him what he did not know? No one encompasses any of His knowledge except what He wills, and no one—whether a prophet or anyone else—knows anything except what Allah has taught him.

Al-Khidr said to Moses:

“I possess knowledge from Allah that He has taught me and that you do not know, and you possess knowledge from Allah that He has taught you and that I do not know.”

When a sparrow dipped its beak into the sea, he said to him:

“My knowledge and yours have diminished Allah’s knowledge no more than this sparrow has diminished this sea.”

It is He, glorified be He, who said concerning Moses:

“And We wrote for him on the Tablets instruction concerning all things and a detailed explanation of all things.”

The point is that denying Allah’s knowledge of events—including the deeds of His servants and other things—before they occur is false. Yet the extremists among the Qadariyyah deny this knowledge.