who claimed that Paradise and Hell would pass away; Abū al-Hudhayl al-Allāf (1), for his part, claimed that the movements of [the inhabitants of] (2) Paradise and Hell would cease (3), and that they would remain forever motionless.
They adopted this position because they believed that an infinite succession of events was impossible in both the past and the future—a position for which the leading scholars of Islam declared them misguided.
As for an infinite succession of events in the past, Muslims—including hadith scholars, kalām theologians, and others—also hold two views on it.
Whoever holds that He—exalted is He—(4) has always spoken whenever He wills and has always acted whenever He wills, performing acts (5) that subsist in Him—by His power (6) and will—one after another, also holds that He has always spoken by His will and acted by His will, one thing after another, while maintaining that everything other than Allah is originated [created, coming into existence after not having existed] (7), and that there is nothing in
(1) Abū al-Hudhayl Muhammad ibn al-Hudhayl ibn Abd Allāh ibn Makhūl al-Abdī al-Allāf was a leading scholar of the Basran Mu‘tazilites and the head of the Hudhayliyya school. He was born in Basra in 135 AH and died in 226, 227, or 235 AH, according to three different reports. Al-Shahrastānī states (*al-Milal wa-l-Nihal*, 1:54): “One doctrine by which Abū al-Hudhayl differed from the other Mu‘tazilites was his assertion that the movements of the inhabitants of the two eternal abodes would cease and that they would enter a state of perpetual motionlessness and quiescence. All pleasures would be concentrated in that stillness for the inhabitants of Paradise, and all suffering would be concentrated in it for the inhabitants of Hell. This closely resembles the doctrine of Jahm, who held that Paradise and Hell would cease to exist.” For Abū al-Hudhayl’s biography and a discussion of his doctrine, see: *Lisān al-Mīzān*, 5:413–414; Ibn Khallikān, 3:396–397; *Tārīkh Baghdād*, 3:366–370; *al-Milal wa-l-Nihal*, 1:53–56; *al-Farq bayna al-Firaq*, pp. 73–79; *al-Maqālāt*, 1:217, 224, 225; Alī Mustafā al-Ghurābī, *Abū al-Hudhayl al-Allāf* (Cairo, 1949).
(2) “The inhabitants of” is omitted from all the manuscripts; it should be included.
(3) N, M, and A read: “the two cease.”
(4) A and B read: “Indeed, Allah.”
(5) A and B read: “and He has always performed acts.”
(6) A and B read: “and His power,” which is incorrect.
(7) The text between square brackets is omitted from N and M.