his permission; for a person is described as unjust because he violates his Lord’s command and because he may(1) dispose of another’s property without his permission. The Lord Most High has no commander above Him, nor does anyone else possess any property; rather, He disposes only of His own property. Accordingly, anything whose existence is possible is not injustice. Indeed, if He were to grant bliss to Pharaoh, Abū Jahl, and others like them who disbelieved in and disobeyed Him, while punishing Moses, Muhammad, and others who believed in and obeyed Him, that would be no different from the reverse: all of them stand on equal footing in relation to Him. However, since He has informed us that He will grant bliss to the obedient and punish the disobedient, this is known to occur because His report is true—not because any cause necessitates it. Actions are merely signs of reward and punishment, not their causes.”

This is the position of Jahm and his followers, as well as those who agreed with him, such as al-Asharī and those among the followers of the four jurists, the Sufis, and others who agreed with him. Hence, they deem it possible that He punish someone incapable of knowing the truth, even if that person has exercised independent reasoning. In their view, events have no actual causes or wise purposes, nor are there attributes inherent in acts by reason of which those acts were commanded or forbidden. Rather, according to them, His creation and command can admit of no “in order that” (lām kay, the particle of purpose).

The Qadariyya, by contrast, posit a law for Him concerning what is obligatory or forbidden for Him, drawing an analogy between Him and His servants. We have discussed the positions of both groups in various places and devoted an earlier section of this book to the matter, when discussing what this Rāfidī attributed to all(2) of Ahl al-Sunnah—namely, the position of these coercionist Jahmiyya. We explained that this issue has no bearing on the question of the imamate or of relative merit. Rather, among the Shia are those who espouse compulsion and others who espouse free will, while among Ahl al-Sunnah too there are proponents of each position.