The Shaykh’s discourse on how to address deviant beliefs, such as the exaggeration in affirming divine decree and the denial of attributes among the Mu’tazilah and others.

The Shaykh : We are afflicted today, O scholars, with a new generation. It is true that they should proceed based on the Book and the Sunnah, but they do not give knowledge its due value. They imagine that one of them can become a scholar in the true sense, based on the Book and the Sunnah, overnight. They imagine the matter to be so. Then they are afflicted with much knowledge and arrogance, and a love of showing off. As some of the wise said long ago, as you know: "The love of showing off cuts off the showing off." Therefore, some of them speak based on what arises in their own minds, imagining that they are the scholar himself. Often, they proceed in this field which they claim is knowledge, but which is in reality ignorance, in response to some deviant beliefs from the Book and the Sunnah. But the result is that they address the matter in the manner of Abu Nuwas: "And I treated it with that which was the disease."
For example, this issue which you responded to me regarding: they claim that the way to refute the belief in *jabr* (compulsion), which arose among the *Jabriyyah* due to their exaggeration in faith in divine decree and destiny, and their incorrect understanding of this belief, necessitated *jabr* from this belief. So they stated its necessary consequence, in their claim, as it came in some of their poetry:
"He threw him into the sea bound, then said to him: Beware, beware of being wet by the water."
This depicts the belief of the *Jabriyyah*. So where did the *Jabriyyah* come from? From faith in divine decree and destiny with an incorrect understanding, with an incorrect understanding. So the other group, the Mu’tazilah, addressed this error. They said: There is no way for us to refute *jabr* except by what they relied upon, which is faith, namely divine decree. So there is no divine decree. Both are at opposite extremes, and both are on the path of Abu Nuwas: "And I treated it with that which was the disease."
So I see that many beliefs are misunderstood, and are addressed in this deviant manner from the truth. Many of the famous, great scholars may fall into this, and their excuse for that is the misunderstanding of the common people, and perhaps some of the specialists with them, of the correct belief. So they strike the misunderstanding by striking the correct belief. You certainly know that among the correct beliefs inherited by the later generations from the earliest generations is the faith in the descent of Isa (peace be upon him) at the end of time, and it is accompanied by the faith in the emergence of the Mahdi...
We return to the original issue of divine decree. How did the Mu’tazilah address *jabr* in a bad manner? This was because they were unable to understand divine decree in a way that does not necessitate *jabr*. Rather, they joined the *Jabriyyah* in their understanding of divine decree as necessitating *jabr*. And *jabr* is invalid, and what necessarily follows from it is invalid, so it is invalid. And if they did not find a means—meaning, of course, the Mu’tazilah—to fight *jabr* except by demolishing the belief in divine decree. And they certainly cannot do so, and even though they are misguided, they are believers in the Book of Allah the Exalted and Majestic. So they cannot deny divine decree as a term mentioned in the Noble Qur'an in more than one verse. They cannot deny that, otherwise they would exit the religion. But they—and this is the case of every misguided sect that deviated from the Book and the Sunnah—they believe in the words of the Book but do not believe in their meanings. So they believed in divine decree, but they interpreted divine decree to mean knowledge, as they did in many verses related to the divine attributes.
For example, they deny that Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) has the attributes of hearing and seeing, and they know, for example, the saying of the Lord of the Worlds: They cannot deny these two attributes, that He is All-Hearing and All-Seeing, except by the same method by which they denied divine decree, which is interpretation, or rather denial of attributes. So they said: The All-Hearing and All-Seeing means the All-Knowing. So likewise, they interpreted divine decree to mean what? Knowledge. Even though, as is not hidden from you, knowledge is an essential attribute, whereas divine decree is an attribute of action, from the attributes of actions. So they mixed up this essential attribute with the attribute of knowledge. Why this mixing? To strike *jabr*. But it hit them as the proverb says in some countries: "They were under the rain and became under the gutter." Is this known to you?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : And the old Arab poet, as you know, says:
"Sa'd drove them in, and Sa'd was wrapped up. This is not, O Sa'd, how camels are driven in."
It is necessary to combine all the divine attributes derived from the Book of Allah and the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and it is not permissible to strike some with others or deny some at the expense of others. And how excellent is what Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said on this occasion:
"Knowledge is: Allah said, His Messenger said, the Companions said; it is not deception.
What knowledge has placed you in the foolishness of disagreement Between the Messenger and the opinion of a jurist
No, and not the denial of the attributes and their negation Out of fear of denial of attributes and likening Allah to creation
And this is the just position: no denial of attributes and no likening Allah to creation, but rather faith as Allah the Exalted and Majestic intended with these verses and the hadiths of the Messenger (peace be upon him) which establish the divine attributes.
The point is, I return to what I had concluded, that many scholars, when they want to address some of the deviations that have afflicted the masses in the past and present, address them with a deviation like it or more dangerous than it. And I gave as an example the belief in the descent of Isa (peace be upon him).