[Section on the Rāfidi’s assertion that Allah Most High is incapable of bringing about the like of what servants can bring about, and the response to it]
Section.
The Rāfidi (1) said:
“Others held that Allah Most High cannot bring about the like of what servants can bring about” (2).
The response to him is:
This is one of the intricate questions of speculative theology. It is not an issue peculiar to Ahl al-Sunnah, nor do those who affirm (3) the caliphate of the caliphs agree upon it (4). [Rather, some of the Qadariyyah hold this view. As for Ahl al-Sunnah, who affirm divine decree, none of them holds it. It is espoused only by those Qadariyyah authorities who hold it, and they are the teachers of these later Imāmiyyah in questions of divine unity and justice (5). (Indeed, everything that these later Imāmī scholars say concerning questions of divine unity and justice) (6)—scholars such as Ibn al-Nu‘mān, al-Mūsawī, known as al-Murtadā, Abū Ja‘far al-Tūsī (7), and others—is (8) taken from
(1) “The Rāfidi said”: thus in ʿA. The passage that follows appears in K, *Minhāj al-Karāma*, p. 85 (M).
(2) B reads: “the servant”; M reads: “the like of what the servants can bring about.” In A, the phrase “He cannot bring about the like of what the servants can bring about” is omitted. K, p. 85 (M), reads: “the like of what the servant can bring about; and others held that He cannot bring about the very thing the servant can bring about.” “Most High” is absent from K.
(3) ʿA reads: “nor those who affirm.”
(4) The passage after “agree upon it” through the beginning of the following section is omitted from N. In M, the entire passage that follows is replaced by a single sentence: “Rather, some of them hold this view, while others do not.”
(5) ʿA reads: “justice and divine unity.”
(6) The text enclosed in parentheses appears only in ʿA.
(7) Ibn al-Nuʿmān is Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Nuʿmān ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Baghdādī, known as al-Shaykh al-Mufīd. Al-Murtadā is ʿAlī ibn al-Husayn ibn Mūsā ibn Muhammad. Al-Tūsī is Abū Jaʿfar Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn ʿAlī, the leading scholar of the Imāmiyyah and head of the community. Biographical notices of all three appeared previously at 1/58 and 2/83.
(8) “Is”: thus in A; B reads: “and is”; “is” is omitted from ʿA.