[535] From تعطيل _tâtíl_, “neglecting, causing to be unemployed, rendering useless, vacation.” Rigorously they are perhaps not to be declared atheists, as above: for their creed consists rather in denying the attributes of God, and in presenting him as inaccessible to human intelligence and strange to the government of the world, than in denying positively his existence.――(See _Chrestomathie Arabe_, tome II. p. 96, by _Silvestre de Sacy_.) [536] The scholastics among the Muhammedans employ in their discussions principally two words: القضا, _al ka[:z]a_, and القدر, _al kadr_, necessarily annexed to each other, but still distinct by a nice sense particular to each: _al ka[:z]á_ signifies God’s universal and eternal judgment or decree, by which the particular things are created and disposed so as they are to remain to all the ages of eternity; _al kadr_ means God’s will in bringing forth, at a determined time and by a determined cause, things in their proper measure and fixed proportion with regard to their essence as well as to their condition.――(_Pocock_, first edit., pp. 207-209.) [537] There are three principal opinions about the decrees of God, and the power of man with regard to his actions, among the Muhammedans. The first is that of the _Motazalahs_, according to which man is the agent in good and evil, in faith, and infidelity, in obedience and rebellion; all his actions are his; for it could not be said to man, “Act,” if he had not the faculty of acting. Evil and iniquity can by no means be attributed to God; an infidel is composed of a man and of infidelity: God created the first, but not the latter. The second opinion is that of the _rigid Jabariahs_, followers of _Jahmi Ebn Sefwan_, whose sect flourished about the middle of the eighth century. According to them there is no action but in God; man acts, without power his own, without will or choice, exactly as a tree produces fruits, as water runs, as a stone moves. Reward and punishment are likewise proceeding from necessity, as well as the imposition of orders comes from necessity.