he wards it off with clothing. The same applies to anything sought as a means of warding off something unwelcome. Thus, they asked the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“O Messenger of Allah, what do you say about medicines we use, healing recitations we seek, and precautions we take? Do they avert any of Allah’s decree?”

He replied, “They are themselves part of Allah’s decree.”

Another hadith states:

“Supplication and affliction meet and contend with one another between heaven and earth.”

Such is the way of those who believe in Allah and His Messenger and worship Allah. All of this is worship.

Those who witness the “reality of the created order”—namely, His lordship, exalted is He, over everything—and make this a reason not to follow His religious commands laid down in revelation occupy varying degrees of misguidance. Their extremists apply this without qualification or exception, invoking divine decree to justify every violation of the Sharia.

Their position is worse than that of the Jews and Christians. It is akin to the position of the polytheists expressed in the verse:

“Those who associate others with Allah will say, ‘Had Allah willed, neither we nor our fathers would have associated others with Him, nor would we have forbidden anything.’”

They also said:

“Had the Most Merciful willed, we would not have worshipped them.”

These people are among the most self-contradictory on earth. Indeed, everyone who invokes divine decree as an excuse contradicts himself, for he cannot condone whatever every person does. Thus, it is inevitable, when a wrongdoer wrongs him or others, spreads corruption in the land, and begins shedding people’s blood, violating sexual sanctity, destroying crops and offspring, and committing other such forms of