their killing to efface the Truth and find relief from it. Thus, the two intentions differed."

The Questioner said: "This [explanation] is specific to the scholars in the councils of the powerful; what then is the proof for the assemblies of the commoners?"

The Gnostic said: "If it is said: 'Whoever intended for that which Christ intended to occur has obeyed him, and whoever did not intend what Christ intended has disobeyed him,' it is replied to him: Indeed, obedience and disobedience are not [rooted] in Intent (al-Irāda); rather, obedience and disobedience are in Command and Prohibition (al-Amr wa al-Nahy). This is because one might refuse what Allah intended or dislike it. Those who are neither obedient nor disobedient are children and the mentally ill; for if anyone who performed an act by the Will of Allah were either obedient or disobedient, then children and the mentally ill would be considered obedient or disobedient. Thus, obedience is not owed to Intent, but is owed to Command and Prohibition.

Christ did not command them to kill him; rather, he prohibited them from that. When they realized [that intent] and resolved upon it, imagining it within themselves and gathering for it, he veiled their sight from him and manifested a semblance (shabbaha) of that act to them. He cast concealment (labbasa) upon them through knowledge, power, clarity, and volition.