And their position entails rejecting everything commanded—indeed, rejecting both what is created and what is commanded. Their error arose from supposing that prior divine ordainment precludes what is decreed from coming about through the prescribed means. This resembles someone who falls into heresy and abandons obligatory deeds on the grounds that divine decree has already determined who will attain bliss and who will suffer misery. He fails to understand that divine decree encompasses things as they actually are: for anyone whom Allah has destined for bliss, His decree includes making the deeds of those destined for bliss easy for him; and for anyone whom He has destined for misery, His decree includes making the deeds of those destined for misery easy for him. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, answered this very question in the hadiths narrated by ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib, ʿImrān ibn Husayn, Surāqah ibn Jaʿsham, and others.

Among these is the hadith reported by al-Tirmidhī:

Ibn Abī ʿUmar narrated to us: Sufyān narrated to us, from al-Zuhrī, from Abū Khizāmah, from his father, who said:

“I asked the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, saying, ‘O Messenger of Allah, tell me about medicines with which we treat ourselves, healing recitations which we ask others to recite over us, and precautions we take to protect ourselves: do they avert anything of Allah’s decree?’

“He replied, ‘They are themselves part of Allah’s decree.’”

Another group thinks that reliance upon Allah is merely one of the spiritual stations of the elect who draw near to Allah through voluntary acts of worship. They say the same about the deeds of the heart and what follows from them, such as love, hope, fear, gratitude, and the like. This is manifest error. Rather, all these matters are individual obligations, by agreement of the people of faith. Whoever abandons them entirely