The Qadariyya, Mu`tazila, and Shî`a

The Qadariyya, Mu`tazila, and Shî`a

by GF Haddad - Shawwâl 1423

These three groups are essentially one and the same in their setting up reason as the ultimate criterion of truth and in several of their fundamental tenets of doctrine such as their denial of the reality of the life of the grave, the torture of the Fire, the delights of Paradise, the beatific vision, the uncreatedness of the Qur'ân, and especially in their annullment of the reality of the Divine Attributes apart from the Essence and their rejection of the Divine foreordainment (al-qadar) of evil on the rational grounds that "Allâh cannot but will good" - in effect setting up as many co-creators for evil as there are acts. Mu`tazilîs and Qadarîs also deny intercession (shafâ`a) and the karâmât of the Awliyâ'. "All Mu`tazilîs are Qadarîs but not vice-versa" (al-Maghnîsâwî). Modernists are fond of Mu`tazilism as [1] it affords them a historical antecedent without which their novelty shows too plainly, [2] it provides them with language against the Ulema of Ahl al-Sunna, [3] it allows them to re-mould their ignorance of the Sunna and even their atheism into a methodological posture.

The Prophet upon him blessings and peace - said:

"Disputing foreordained destiny (qadar) is for the worst of my Community at the end of time."1

Al-Suyûtî succinctly defined Qadarî doctrine as "the claim that evil is created by human beings"2 Ibn Abî Ya`lâ relates the following description of the Qadariyya: "They are those who claim that they possess in full the capacity to act (al-istitâ`a), free will (al-mashî'a), and effective power (al-qudra). They consider that they hold in their grasp the ability to do good and evil, avoid harm and obtain benefit, obey and disobey, and be guided or misguided. They claim that human beings retain full initiative, without any prior status within the will of Allâh for their acts, nor even in His knowledge of them. Their doctrine is similar to that of Zoroastrians and Christians. It is the very root of heresy."3

The Qadariyya or "Libertarians" are little different from the rationalists known as the Mu`tazila or "Isolationists." Both are traced back to the same founders: `Amr ibn `Ubayd Abû `Uthmân al-Basrî (d ~144) who left al-Hasan al-Basrî's teaching circle and "isolated" himself, and Ma`bad al-Juhanî (d 80) "the first who spoke about qadar in al-Basra."4 Al-Dhahabî introduces the former as "the ascetic (al-zâhid), the devout (al-`âbid), the Qadarî, the elder of the Mu`tazila and the first of them"5 while al-Ajurrî relates from al-Awzâ`î that Ma`bad took Qadarî doctrine from a Christian who temporarily turned Muslim then Christian again; then Ghaylân ibn Muslim learned it from Ma`bad. 6

The name of Qadariyya highlights the doctrine of qadar, while the name of Mu`tazila refers to the broader "Five Principles" - tawhîd, `adl, thawâb, îmân, and amr bi al-ma`rûf which al-Ash`arî and al-Mâturîdî refuted in whole and in detail in many of their books. Following is a survey of these Five Principles integral to Mu`tazilî doctrine:7

1. In the chapter of tawhîd, the Mu`tazila - and the Shî`a in their wake - held that Allâh cannot be seen at all, whether in the world or on the Day of Resurrection as that would necessitate corporeality and direction for Him. In contrast, Ahl al-Sunna held that Allâh will most certainly be seen by the believers on the Day of Resurrection without our specifying how. Al-Ash`arî authored several refutations of the Mu`tazilî and Shî`î view, and the early Hanbalîs considered that the belief that Allâh will not be seen on the Day of Resurrection entails kufr.8 Furthermore, the Mu`tazila - and the Shî`a in their wake - held that the Attributes are none other than the Essence, otherwise, they claimed, there would be a multiplicity of Pre-eternal Entities (qudamâ'); therefore, to them, the Qur'ân is created and both they and the Shî`îs deny the reality and pre-existence of the Attribute of Divine Speech. The vast majority of the early Muslims including Ahl al-Bayt reject this fallacious reasoning as summed up by Imâm Mâlik: "The Qur'ân is the Speech of Allâh, the Speech of Allâh is part of Him (wakalâmullâhi minhu), and nothing created is part of Allâh Most High" 9 . Similarly al-Tahâwî said of the Qur'ân in his "Creed of Abû Hanîfa and his Companions" known as the `Aqîda Tahâwiyya: "It is not created like the speech of creatures". This is the position of the totality of the Salaf including the Four Imâms and their immediate colleagues, in addition to Sufyân al-Thawrî, `Abd Allâh ibn al-Mubârak, al-Awzâ`î, Ja`far ibn Muhammad (Ja`far al-Sâdiq), Abû Ja`far al-Tabarî, Dâwûd ibn Khalaf, Zayd ibn `Alî and others of Ahl al-Bayt, Ishâq ibn Râhûyah, al-Bukhârî and his 1,000 shaykhs by his own verbatim report in Khalq Af`âl al-`Ibâd, and countless others of the pious Predecessors. Dr. Sa`îd al-Bûtî wrote:

The Mu`tazila denied the existence of the "Attributes of Meanings" (sifât al-ma`ânî), asserting that Allâh is Knower without being characterized by any Attribute of Knowledge (sifat al-`ilm), and Powerful without being characterized by any Attribute of Power (sifat al-qudra). The only reason that made them adopt this position is their notion that to attribute such an essential Attribute (sifa dhâtiyya) to Allâh Most High entails assent to a multiplicity of beginningless entities (ta`addud al-qudamâ') equalling the number of these Attributes, which assent constitutes disbelief by unanimous agreement. Therefore, they said that His "being-knower" (âlimiyyatuhu) and "being-powerful" (qâdiriyyatuhu) are necessarily true of His essence and need not, in order to exist, Knowledge and Power, contrary to the case for human beings. They also said that Allâh Most High is perfect and complete in His essence, so that, if we said that His "being-knower" is established by means of the Attribute of knowledge, then His essence would be lacking something since it needs, for its completion, an external means - a position that is unanimously null and void.

The above are all specious claims to which the Mu`tazilî perspective gave rise due to their burdening reason with more than its capacity in these matters. This is their well-known method. What is impossible in the multiplicity of beginningless entities is that the beginningless essences be multiple - not the Attributes of a single essence.10 Now, the "being-knower" of Allâh is nothing more than the ascription of the Attribute of knowledge itself to Allâh Most High. Nowhere in this is there anything "needing" nor anything "needed". This also tells you that the ascription of the Attribute of knowledge to Him does not entail His being completed by means of something other than Him.

There is proof enough for us that Allâh ascribed to Himself the Attribute of Knowledge in the verse { they encompass nothing of His knowledge save what He will } (2:255).11 It is natural that reason categorically assimilate His other Attributes with this one, ascribing to Him, similarly, the Attributes of life, power, hearing, sight, etc.

The adduction of this verse as proof is well-established, even if we interpret the terms "knowledge" in it to mean "the known" (al-ma`lûm), although there is no necessity for such interpretation. For if knowledge were not firmly established for Allâh Most High, He would not have attributed it to Himself nor signified the object of the known by it. Thus the signifying of "the known" by "knowledge" is still a branch of the validity of the ascription of Knowledge to Allâh Almighty.12

2. In the chapter of Divine Justice (al-`adl), the Mu`tazila - and the Qadariyya, Shi`a, and Christians likewise - held that Allâh Most High cannot possibly create the evil deeds of His servants, therefore they are in charge of their own destinies and create the latter themselves through a power which Allâh Most High deposited in them. This heresy is the core of Qadarî belief and was refuted by Imâm al-Ash`arî in his book Khalq al-A`mal, his student Ibn Khafîf in his al-`Aqîda al-Sahîha (§40: "Acts belong to Allâh, not to creatures, while earning - al-iktisâb - belongs to creatures, but earning is created by Allâh, not by them") and, before them, by al-Bukhârî in his Khalq Af`âl al-`Ibâd.

3. In the chapter of Reward and Punishment, the Mu`tazila held that Allâh, of necessity, rewards those who do good and punishes those who do evil. This was refuted by Ibn Khafîf who summed up the Sunni position in his al-`Aqîda al-Sahîha (§32-34): "Allâh is doer of what He will: Injustice is not attributed to Him, And He rules over His dominion as He will, without [anyone's entitlement to] objection whatsoever." I.e. He rewards and punishes without being obliged to do so by the actions of His servants and He is free to place the disbeliever in Paradise and the believer in Hellfire without any injustice on His part, since He owns all sovereignty over the heavens and the earth, and no one received any share of authority from Him to object to what He does.13 Further (§80), "The believers shall be brought out of the Fire, and great sins (al-kabâ'ir) will not cause those who committed them to remain therein eternally." The Mu`tazila denied all this and further held that Allâh does not forgive grave sinners unless they repent before death, even if they are Muslims. Al-Mâturîdî refuted this position in his book Radd Wa`id al-Fussaq ("The Refutation of the [Doctrine of the] Eternal Damnation of Grave Sinners"). The Mu`tazila also denied the Prophet's intercession - upon him blessings and peace, since he said: "My intercession is for the grave sinners of My Community."14 Al-Hâkim stated, after narrating this hadîth: "It contains a rebuttal of the innovators who differentiated between intercession for light and grave sinners."15 Ibn Hajar similarly adduced this hadîth against the Mu`tazila by saying: "He did not restrict his intercession to those who repented."16 Ibn Abî `Asim even mentioned the apostasy of those who deny the Prophet's intercession - upon him blessings and peace, as it is related through mass transmission (tawâtur).17

4. In the chapter of îmân the Mu`tazila held that grave sinners were considered neither believers nor disbelievers and so construed for them a "half-way status" between the two (al-manzila bayn al-manzilatayn). They claimed that grave sinners belonged eternally in the Fire - as mentioned in the previous heading - but in a less harsh situation than pure disbelievers.

5. Finally the Mu`tazila held, as do Ahl al-Sunna and the Shi`a, that commanding goodness and forbidding evil was obligatory upon the believers. However, in deriving this and the previous four headings, the Mu`tazila and Shi`a gave precedence to reason and reason-based methods over the Sunna, the Sunna-based principles of the Imâms of the Salaf, and the Consensus of the Companions and Salaf. They picked and chose whatever verses and narrations suited their views and rejected the rest either through manipulation of the meanings or through flat denial of the authenticity of transmission, as did the rest of the sects with limited or no knowledge of the Sunna and its methodology.

Al-Nawawî on the Mu`tazila and Qadariyya

Imâm al-Nawawî (d. 676) gave the following explanations of the belief in Foreordained Destiny (qadar) in his "Commentary on the Forty Hadîths":

The way of the People of Truth is to firmly believe in Divinely Foreordained Destiny. The meaning of this is that Allâh Most High has foreordained matters from pre-eternity and that He knows that they shall take place at times known to Him and at places known to Him; and they do occur exactly according to what He has decreed.

Know that there are four kinds of destiny:

<< (a) Destiny in the Divine Foreknowledge. It is said concerning it: Care (`inâya) before friendship (wilâya), pleasure before childbirth, and continual harvest from first-fruits. Allâh the Exalted said: { He is made to turn away from it who has been made to turn away } (51:9).18

In other words, one is turned away from hearing the Qur'ân and from believing in this life who was driven from them in pre-eternity. The Messenger of Allâh -  upon him blessings and peace - said: "Allâh does not destroy except one who is already destroyed."19

<< (b) Destiny in the Preserved Tablet. Such Destiny may be changed. Allâh said: { Allâh erases what He will, and He consolidates what He will, and with Him is the Mother of the Book } (13:39).20 We know that Ibn `Umar used to say in his supplications:

"O Allâh, if You have foreordained hardship for me, erase it and write felicity for me."

(c) Destiny in the womb concerning which the angel is ordered to foreordain one's sustenance, term of life, and whether he shall be miserable or prosperous

<< (d) Destiny which consists in joining specific fore-written matters to the appointed times in which they are to befall. For Allâh the Exalted has created both good and evil and has ordained that they should befall His servant at times appointed by Him.

<< The evidence that Allâh Almighty created both good and evil is His saying:

{ The guilty are in error and madness. On the day they are dragged to the fire on their faces, they will be told: 'Taste the touch of hell.' Lo! We created everything with proportion and measure (qadar) } (54:47-49).

That verse was revealed concerning the proponents of absolute freewill or Qadariyya who were thus told: "That belief of yours is in hellfire."

<< As further evidence of what has been decreed, the Exalted said:
{ Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of the Cleaving from the evil of what He has created. } (113:1).

The reading of that oath at the time something good befalls the servant of Allâh will repel foreordained evil before it reaches him. Also mentioned in the hadîth, good deeds and upholding family ties repel a bad death and eventually turn it into a good one.21 Also, "Supplication (al-du`â') and affliction (al-balâ') are suspended between heaven and earth, vying, and supplication repels affliction before the latter comes down."22

<< The Mu`tazila claimed that Allâh the Exalted has not foreordained matters, that His knowledge does not precede them, that they begin to exist only when they occur and that He knows them only at that time. They lied concerning Allâh Exalted is He above their falsehoods, and higher yet. They went into oblivion.

<< Now the latter-day Qadariyya say that the good is from Allâh while the bad is from other than Him. Allâh is also Exalted beyond such a statement. In a sound hadîth the Prophet -  upon him blessings and peace - said: "The Qadariyya are the Zoroastrians (majûs) of this Community."23 He named them Zoroastrians because their school of thought resembles that of Zoroastrian dualism. The Dualists claim that good is effected by light and evil by darkness, and thus earned their name. Similarly the proponents of free will ascribe the good to Allâh and the bad to other than Him, whereas He is the creator of both good and evil.

<< The Imâm of the Two Sanctuaries said in his Kitâb al-Irshâd that some of the Qadariyya said: "It is not we but you (Ahl al-Sunna) who are the Qadariyya because of your belief in so-called Foreordained Destiny."24 [Ibn] al-Juwaynî answered these ignoramuses that they had ascribed the power of decree to themselves, and whoever claimed, for example, the power of evil and ascribed it to himself, he has earned its label, rather than one who ascribes it to other than himself and denies any authorship of it.>>

NOTES

1. Narrated from Abû Hurayra by al-Tabarânî in al-Awsat, al-Hâkim, and al-Bazzâr in his Musnad with a sound chain as stated by al-Haythamî in Majma` al-Zawâ'id

2. In Tadrîb al-Râwî (1:389).

3. In Tabaqât al-Hanâbila (1:32) in the entry of Ahmad ibn Ja`far al-Istakhri.

4. Narrated from Yahyâ ibn Ya`mar by Muslim, al-Tirmidhî, and Abû Dâwûd

5. Siyar A`lâm al-Nubalâ' (6:330 #858). He returned onto the Ahl al-Sunna the label of Qadariyya - in the opposite sense of those who over-emphasize the Divine Foreordained Destiny - in a book entitled al-Radd `alâ al-Qadariyya.

6. Al-Ajurrî, al-Sharî`a (p. 251).

7. Adapted from Abû Zahra, Abû Hanîfa (p. 129-130).

8. See Tabaqât al-Hanâbila (1:59, 1:161, 1:312) and our article on the vision of Allâh in the world and hereafter.

9. Narrated by al-Dhahabî in Siyar A`lâm al-Nubalâ' (Dâr al-Fikr ed 7:416). Cf. Ibn Khafîf, al-`Aqîda al-Sahîha §26.

10. Cf. al-Ijî, al-Mawâqif (p. 76): "The Mu`tazila said that the Christians committed apostasy only because they assert three pre-eternal Attributes which they call hypostases (aqânîm).... What then about those who assert seven of them? The answer is that the Christians committed apostasy only because they asserted these three pre-eternal Attributes to be Essences (dhawât), even if they scrupulously avoided naming them so."

11. "What hope can the sciences nourish of encompassing His Essence and Reality? And how can such encompassment even be possible when no space of distance can ever traverse Him in His Might, nor limit (hadd) ever apprehend Him?" Al-Qushayrî, Latâ'if (1:209).

12. Al-Bûtî, Kubrâ al-Yaqînât al-Kawniyya (p. 119 n. 1).

13. The Ash`arî position is that Allâh rewards and punishes without being obliged to do so by the actions of His servants ("Allâh is doer of what He will"), contrary to the Mu`tazilî claim that Allâh, by necessity, rewards those who do good and punishes those who commit evil. Rather than being necessitated to do anything, He is free to place the disbeliever in Paradise and the believer in Hellfire without any injustice on His part ("Injustice is not attributed to Him"), since He owns all sovereignty over the heavens and the earth, and no one received any share of authority from Him to object to what He does. The evidence for this is in the verses: { Know you not that unto Allâh belongs the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth? He punishes whom He will, and forgives whom He will. Allâh is Able to do all things } (5:40); {Say : Who then can do aught against Allâh, if He had willed to destroy the Messiah son of Mary, and his mother and everyone on earth? To Allâh belongs the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them. He creates what He will. And Allâh is Able to do all things} (5:17); { The sentence that comes from Me cannot be changed, and I am in no wise a tyrant unto the slaves } (50:29). At the same time it is obligatorily known that Allâh does not take back His promise to reward those who believe and do good and punish evil-doers: { But as for those who believe and do good works We shall bring them into gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide for ever. It is a promise from Allâh in truth; and who can be more truthful than Allâh in utterance? } (4:122). The Scholars have described the former evidence as "based on reason" (dalîl `aqlî) and the latter as "based on law" (dalîl shar`î), noting that it is the latter which takes precedence over the former. Cf. al-Bûtî, Kubrâ al-Yaqînât (p. 149).
See also Ibn `Arabî's `Aqîda < §168-173 > and Abû Ishâq al-Isfarâyînî's famous debate with the Mu`tazilî `Abd al-Jabbâr.

14. Narrated from Anas by al-Tirmidhî (hasan sahîh gharîb), Abû Dâwûd, Ahmad with a sound chain per al-Zayn in the Musnad (11:120 #13155), Ibn Hibbân with a sound chain per al-Arna'ût (14:387 #6468), Ibn Abî `Asim in al-Sunna (p. 385 #831-832), Ibn Khuzayma in al-Tawhîd (p. 270), al-Tabarânî in al-Saghîr (1:272 #448) and al-Kabîr (1:258 #749), al-Bayhaqî in al-Sunan al-Kubrâ (8:17 #15616, 10:190 #20563), al-Tayâlisî (p. 270 #2026), al-Qudâ`î in Musnad al-Shihâb (1:166-167 #236-237), and al-Hâkim (1:69) who declared it sahîh and was confirmed by al-Bayhaqî as quoted from al-Sakhâwî in al-Maqâsid al-Hasana (p. 595); also from Jâbir by al-Tirmidhî (hasan gharîb), Ibn Mâjah, Ibn Hibbân with a sound chain according to Shaykh Shu`ayb al-Arna'ût (14:386 #6467), Ibn Khuzayma in al-Tawhîd (p. 271), al-Hâkim (1:69, 2:382) who declared it sahîh and was confirmed by al-Dhahabî, al-Tayâlisî (p. 233 #1669), and al-Ajurrî in al-Sharî`a (p. 338); also from Ibn `Umar by Abû Ya`lâ in his Musnad with a sound chain according to al-Haythamî (7:5) - a fair one according to al-Albânî in Ibn Abî `Asim's al-Sunna (p. 384 #830); also from Ibn `Abbâs by al-Tabarânî in al-Kabîr (11:189 #11454) with a weak chain according to al-Munâwî; and from Ka`b ibn `Ajura by al-Khatîb in Târîkh Baghdâd (3:40) with a fair chain as stated in Zawâ'id Târîkh Baghdâd (2:274-276 #264) and by al-Ajurrî in al-Sharî`a (p. 338).

15. In al-Mustadrak (1:69). I.e. those who restricted the benefit of the Prophet's intercession -  upon him blessings and peace - to light sinners only.

16. In Fath al-Bârî, book of Riqaq ch 51 (1989 ed 11:522; 1959 ed 11:429 #6190). Compare this fundamental doctrine of Ahl al-Sunna to the following statement: "Mercy is only for those who deserve it among the believers. The more the believer fears Allâh, the more he is more meritorious in receiving it. It is not as is falsely hoped by some of the cretins (al-mahâbîl) who warble this saying of their poet, al-Bûsîrî: It may be that my Lord's mercy, when He distributes it, shall match the transgressions in proportion." Albânî, introduction to al-San`ânî's Raf` al-Astâr (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islâmî, 1984, p. 24-25).

17. In al-Sunna (p. 385). However, the Mu`tazila did concede types of intercession hence they are not disbelievers on this chapter.

18. Al-Qushayrî in his Latâ'if (6:29) took the pronoun to refer to the Prophet -  upon him blessings and peace, in which case the meaning of the verse translates to {He is made to turn away from him who has been made to turn away}.

19. Narrated from Ibn `Abbâs and Abû Hurayra by al-Bukhârî and Muslim: "None perishes with Allâh except he who is bound for destruction." Ibn Hajar said in Fath al-Bârî (book of Riqaq, Chapter 31 #6491): "That is, he who is adamant in clinging to evil in his resolve, his speech, and his deed, and avoids good by design, speech, and deed."

20. "Divine will (al-mashî'a) is not subject to contingency (al-hudûth), whereas erasure and consolidation (al-mahû wal-ithbât) are connected to contingency. The Attributes of the Essence - may He be exalted! - such as His Speech and Knowledge, His saying and His judgment, are not part of erasure and consolidation. The latter two are only among the Attributes of act (sifâtu fî`lih). Erasure refers to non-existence (al-`adam) while consolidation refers to origination (al-ihdâth). So He erases love of the world from the hearts of ascetics and consolidates in it renunciation instead, as in the report of Hâritha: 'I have turned myself away from this world until its rocks and its gold became the same for me.' He erases from the hearts of the Knowers the lot of the world (al-huzûz) and consolidates His rights instead. He erases from the hearts of the upholders of Oneness (al-muwahhidûn) the witnessing of other than the Real and consolidates the witnessing of the Real instead. He erases the traces of humaneness (al-bashariyya) and consolidates the lights of the witnessing of Unicity. ... It was said that the Mother of the Book is the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfûz) in which He consolidated whatever His knowledge and Judgment have preceded and which will neither be substituted nor changed." Al-Qushayrî, Latâ'if (3:234-236).
Al-Qurtubî in his commentary on Sûrat al-Fâtiha showed that the term "Mother of the Book" is one of the names of Sûrat al-Fâtiha according to the vast majority of the scholars, as stated in the hadîth of the Prophet - upon him blessings and peace: "{ Al-hamdu lillâh } is the Mother of the Qur'ân and the Mother of the Book and the Seven Oft-Repeated." Narrated from Abû Hurayra by al-Bukhârî, al-Tirmidhî (hasan sahîh), Abû Dâwûd, al-Dârimî, and others. Al-Hasan al-Basrî said the Mother of the Book is whatever pertains to the lawful and the illicit (cf. Qur'ân 3:7); Anas and Ibn Sîrîn said it refers to the Preserved Tablet (cf. Qur'ân 43:4). Al-Suyûtî in al-Durr al-Manthûr cited a report from Makhûl that "The Mother of the Book is recitation, question, and supplication."

21. The following hadîths are related from the Prophet  upon him blessings and peace: "Charity (al-sadaqa) certainly extinguishes the Lord's anger and repels a bad death." Narrated from Anas with a weak chain by al-Tirmidhî (gharîb). Also: "Verily, because of charity and keeping uterine family ties, Allâh increases life, repels a bad death, and repels all kinds of evils." Narrated from by Abû Ya`lâ al-Mawsilî in his Musnad. Also: "Keeping family ties and good manners builds up one's house and increases life." Narrated from `A'isha by Ahmad in his Musnad; "Whoever would like for Allâh to increase his income and lengthen his span of life, let him keep family connections." Narrated from Anas by al-Bukhârî, Muslim, Abû Dâwûd, and Ahmad in his Musnad with a fair chain according to Hamza al-Zayn (10:504 #12526).

22. Something similar is authentically related from the Prophet -  upon him blessings and peace - by the following: Ibn Mâjah in the introduction to his Sunan and the book of Fitan (#66); al-Tirmidhî; Ahmad, with three chains in the Musnad; and Ibn Hibbân.

23. A nearly-mass-narrated (mashhûr) hadîth narrated from eight Companions by al-Tirmidhî (hasan), Abû Dâwûd, Ibn Mâjah, al-Tabarânî, al-Hâkim in al-Mustadrak (1:85), Ahmad in the Musnad, al-Bayhaqî, al-Bazzâr, al-Bukhârî in his Târîkh, al-Lâlikâ'î, Ibn `Asâkir, and others. Also established as authentic is the longer version narrated from Ibn `Umar whereby the Prophet said -  upon him blessings and peace: "Every Community has its Zoroastrians, and the Zoroastrians of my Community are those who say there is no Foreordained Destiny (qadar). If they fall sick do not visit them, and if they die do not pray over them." Al-Qârî cited five others hadîths against them in his commentary of Abû Hanîfa's Musnad. The chain of this hadîth to Ibn `Umar as narrated in the Sunan and by al-Hâkim is declared hasan by Ibn Hajar in his Ajwiba `alâ al-Qazwînî published in the 1994 edition of al-Qârî's Mirqât (1:540). As for the similar hadîth on the Murji'a and Qadariyya, Ibn Hajar reads it as a comparison, not an identification.

24. See Ibn al-Juwaynî's al-Irshâd ilâ Qawati` al-Adilla fî Usûl al-I`tiqâd ("The Guidance to the Definitive Proofs Concerning the Foundations of Belief"), chapter entitled "The Blame of the Qadariyya" (p. 224-225).

But Allah knows best.

Blessings and peace on the Prophet, his Family, and his Companions.

Hajj Gibril
GF Haddad