(The second principle)

Invoking divine decree to justify sins, neglecting what is commanded, and doing what is forbidden

Belief in divine decree is obligatory, but it must not be invoked to justify contravening Allah’s commands and prohibitions or disregarding His promises and threats. Those who have gone astray concerning divine decree fall into three groups:

One group believes in the commands and prohibitions, the promises and threats, but denies divine decree, claiming that some events are not created by Allah. Such are the Mu‘tazila and others like them.

Another group believes in divine ordainment and decree, agreeing with Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamā‘ah that whatever Allah wills happens, and whatever He does not will does not happen, and that He is the Creator, Lord, and Sovereign of everything. Yet they set this in opposition to the commands and prohibitions, calling it “reality” and treating it as contrary to the Sharia.

Some among them say that witnessing divine decree rules out blame and punishment, and that one who possesses spiritual knowledge regards both alike.

In this they contradict themselves and go against revealed law, reason, spiritual experience, and inward feeling. They do not treat those who do them good as equal to those who wrong them, nor do they equate the knowledgeable with the ignorant, the capable with the incapable, the good with the wicked, or the just with the unjust. Rather, they distinguish between them. Moreover, they make these distinctions according to their own desires and aims, not according to the commands and prohibitions. They adhere neither to divine decree nor to the divine command; rather, as