“And if you fear that you will not be able to deal justly with the orphan girls, then marry such women as seem good to you, two, a third, or four; but if you fear that you will not be able to deal justly, then one or those your right hands possess. That is more suitable that you may not incur injustice.” [An-Nisa’: 3].

Therefore, it was natural for the jurisprudential system to look at the institution of slavery, since its structure would never support human freedom, as its call practiced all forms of interpretation; to deny human ability to act, and attributed the whole matter to the one God “The Dominant over His servants”. Abu Hanifa was one of those who believed in compulsion, as he referred to a narration by Ibn Masoud that says: “The sperm remains in the womb for forty days, then it becomes a clot for forty days, then it becomes a lump of flesh for forty days, then its creation arises… and it says, O Lord (!), Male or female? Wretched or happy? What is his provision?” This is what Al-Tahawi decided, in what he transmitted from Abu Hanifa and his followers, saying: “And the happy one is the one who is happy with the decree of God Almighty, and the wretched one is the one who is wretched with His decree.” Ibn Taymiyyah confirmed this by saying: “Abu Hanifa is one of those who acknowledge predestination, according to the consensus of those who know him and his school of thought, and his words in response to the Qadarites are well-known in Al-Fiqh Al-Akbar, in which he elaborated the arguments in response to them in a way that no one else did.”

By engaging with the set of statements that appear to be contradictory in Abu Hanifa, it can be said that he believes in the metaphorical will of man, a statement in which he agrees with the Ash’aris, and the evidence for that is his saying: “The ability with which the servant commits sin is the same as being suitable for him to commit obedience, and he is punished for using the ability that God created in him and commanded him to use it in obedience rather than disobedience.” However, he quickly reverts to the belief in absolute compulsion, when he was asked: “Is it possible for any of the creatures to do in God’s kingdom what He has not decreed?” He said: “No, except that decree has two aspects, one of which is a command and the other is power.” As for the ability, He does not decree or prescribe disbelief for them, nor did He command it. Rather, He forbade it. And the command is of two types: the command of being, if He commands something, it will be, and it is not according to the command of revelation.

Then Abu Hanifa goes on to finally close the door to thinking about the entire issue, where he says: “Did you not know that the one who looks into destiny is like the one who looks into the sun’s rays, the more he looks, the more confused he becomes.” And when someone asked him: “How does God decree all matters, and proceed according to His destiny and decree, and hold people accountable for the work that comes through their hands?”; He said: “This is an issue that is difficult for people, so how can they bear it (!), this is a locked issue, the key to which has been lost, so if its key is found, he will know what is in it, and it will not be opened except by an informant from God who brings what he has and brings evidence and proof.”

For his part, Imam Malik invoked the term “the eternal knowledge of God” resulting from God’s will and desire; which frames everything, to deny the freedom of man and his ability to create his actions. In turn, Al-Shafi’i says that “the will of the servants is up to God Almighty, and they do not will except that God, Lord of the Worlds, wills, for people did not create their actions, and they are created by God Almighty.”

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal is an example of the tendency of the people of Hadith towards determinism, and he believed in destiny, good and bad, and that what a person does is by the power and will of God, so nothing falls into his possession except what he wants, and nothing comes from the servant that God did not prepare for him; therefore, he was harsh on the Qadarites, and did not approve of praying with them.

Imam Ahmad approves of absolute determinism, which was clearly manifested in his book “The Creed of the People of the Sunnah,” which he dictated to Judge Abu Al-Hussein Muhammad ibn Abi Ya’la; “Fate, whether good or bad, little or much, apparent or hidden, is from Allah, a decree that He decreed and a destiny that He ordained. All people will end up as Allah created them. Adultery, theft, drinking alcohol, killing a soul, eating unlawful money, associating partners with Allah and sins are all by decree and destiny, without any of the creation having an argument against Allah. Rather, Allah has the conclusive argument against His creation. Allah knows the obedience of the obedient and created them for it. Everyone works for what he was created for, and ends up as He decreed and knew from him. Allah is the doer of what He wills, the doer of what He wills.” Ibn Hanbal insists that man is compelled to do evil, saying: “Whoever claims that adultery is not predestination, it is said to him: Have you seen this woman, who became pregnant from adultery and gave birth to a child? Did Allah, the Almighty and Majestic, will to create this child? And did it occur in His prior knowledge? If he says: No, then he has claimed that there is a creator with Allah, and this is explicit polytheism.” Whoever claims that stealing, drinking alcohol, and eating unlawful money are not a matter of fate and destiny has claimed that this person is able to eat the livelihood of others, and this is the clear statement of the Zoroastrianism.