as occurring by His will and power. They therefore said:

“Had Allah willed, neither we nor our fathers would have associated partners with Him, nor would we have forbidden anything.”

“If Allah disliked anything, He would remove it. Nothing exists in the world except what Allah loves and approves of. There is no one who disobeys, and I reject a Lord who can be disobeyed. Even if this person has disobeyed the command, he has obeyed the will.” Sometimes they invoke compulsion, claiming that the servant is compelled, that someone compelled is excused, and that the act is Allah’s, performed within the servant, rather than the servant’s own; thus, he incurs no blame.

These people undoubtedly disbelieve in Allah’s Books and Messengers, His commands and prohibitions, His reward and punishment, His promise and threat, and His religion and revealed law. Their disbelief is greater than that of the Jews and Christians—indeed, greater than that of the Sabians and Brahmins who uphold rational systems of governance. For these people reject divinely revealed religions and laws, as well as signs and rational systems of governance.

As for the former group, declaring them unbelievers requires distinctions that are not to be discussed here. These people are enemies of Allah and of all His Messengers—indeed, enemies of all rational human beings, and even enemies of themselves.

No one can consistently apply this position or act upon it for even an hour, since it entails neither resisting an oppressor’s injustice nor punishing an aggressor or a wrongdoer, whether with a punishment equal to his wrongdoing or greater than it. Most of these people invoke this only when it serves their own desires, to deflect blame from themselves. Otherwise, when they have such a grievance against someone, they confront him, fight him, and even transgress against him, and they do not stop