Worse still, they also erred concerning the Lord Himself, equating some of the servants held in subjection in the second category with some of the worshipping servants in the first. Through this confusion, they embraced the doctrines of union and indwelling, to the point that some worshipped Pharaoh and the Dajjāl, while others worshipped beautiful forms and the like, claiming that these were manifestations of beauty. These people rejected worship and faith at times, and the One worshipped at others.

Since our purpose here is to explain the truth of these matters, or whatever truth they contain, we have mentioned this.

As for the first: Allah, glorified be He, has distinguished, through the Quran and faith, between His religious command and His creation of all that exists. Allah, glorified be He, is the Creator, Lord, and Sovereign of everything, including all beings, their attributes, and their actions. Whatever Allah wills comes to pass, and whatever He does not will does not come to pass. Nothing falls outside His will, and nothing occurs except by His will.

Some of this has been denied by the Magian Qadariyya, both within this community and outside it. They claim that Allah did not create the actions of His servants—angels, jinn, human beings, and animals—and that He cannot bestow any more good upon His servants than He has already bestowed upon them. Indeed, they claim that He has no power over their actions, and thus is not powerful over all things; or that evil deeds occur contrary to His will and intent. They are misguided innovators who oppose the Quran, the Sunnah, the consensus of the early generations of this community, and what is known through reason and experience.

Then another group, worse than they, opposed them: the polytheistic Qadariyya, who regarded actions