“Every evildoer will remain in the Fire forever, never to leave it.” The Khawārij further said: “He is an unbeliever.”

The extremist Murji’a denied that anyone among the people of the qiblah would be punished. Those who openly avowed unbelief denied altogether the threatened punishment in the Hereafter, as various groups among the Ittihādiyya, the philosophizers, the Qarāmita and the Bātiniyya do. These determinist Murji’a showed greater disbelief in commands and prohibitions, promises of reward and threats of punishment than the Mu‘tazila, who upheld the doctrines of the Wa‘īdiyya and the Qadariyya. As for the moderate determinist Murji’a, who acknowledge commands and prohibitions, promises of reward and threats of punishment, and that some among the people of the qiblah will enter the Fire, they are the closest to Ahl al-Sunnah.

Al-Tirmidhī narrated that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The Qadariyya and the Murji’a were cursed on the tongues of seventy prophets, of whom I am the last.”

Nevertheless, the Mu‘tazila among the Qadariyya are sounder than the Jabriyya, the Murji’a and their like in their knowledge and practice of the Sharia. Their discussions of the principles of jurisprudence and of obedience to commands and prohibitions are better than those of the Murji’a among the Ash‘arīs and others. The latter’s discussions of the principles of jurisprudence are severely deficient; likewise, they fail to give due weight to acts of obedience and disobedience.

Yet in the fundamentals of religion, they are sounder than the former, for they affirm aspects of Allah’s attributes, power and creation that the former do not affirm. And this category ranks higher.