what Allah had commanded to be joined. The same was true of the “Qadariyya,” who split into two factions. “One faction” gives precedence to revealed law and thus rejects and denies divine decree, or denies part of it. The “other faction” gives precedence to divine decree and thus inwardly denies revealed law or denies its reality, saying: “In reality, there is no difference between what Allah has commanded and what He has forbidden; all are alike. The same applies to His allies and His enemies, and to what He has said He loves and what He has said He hates. He has merely differentiated between identical things by sheer will, commanding one thing and forbidding its like.”

Thus, they denied the distinction and separation between monotheism and associating partners with Allah, between faith and disbelief, between obedience and disobedience, and between the lawful and the unlawful. Conversely, although the former faction acknowledged these distinctions, they denied what unites all things. They denied that Allah has power over all things, and some of them denied that Allah knows all things. They denied that He is the Creator of everything, that whatever He wills comes to pass and whatever He does not will does not come to pass, and that Allah does whatever He wills. They ascribed independent creative power to others besides Allah and affirmed partners who created as He creates, just as the Magians did. They believed that affirming His commands and prohibitions was possible only by attributing inability or ignorance to Him, and that He could not be described as benevolent and generous unless He were deemed incapable; otherwise, He would necessarily be miserly.

Likewise, the “determinist Qadariyya” said: “He cannot be regarded as all-knowing and all-powerful