The following statement by the Umayyad khalifah al- Walid II (ruled 743-744) in a letter to his provincial governors illustrates how the Umayyads used the doctrine of predestination to justify their claims for the legitimacy of their rule and the Tightness of their decrees. The insistent tone of this letter may be a result of the degree to which the legitimacy of Umayyad rule was being questioned in the years just preceding their overthrow by the Abbasids in 750.

The khalifahs of God followed one another, in charge of that which God had caused them to inherit from His prophets and over which He had delegated them. Nobody can dispute their right without God casting him down, and nobody can separate from their community without God destroying him, nor can anyone hold their government in contempt or question God's decree concerning them...