those who adhere to what I am upon today, and my Companions (1).” (2)

So why did he not say: “Whoever holds fast to the Quran, or (3) to the indication of the Quran, or to the implication of the Quran, or to the apparent wording of the Quran in matters of creed is misguided; true guidance lies only in your return to the standards of your own intellects and to whatever the dialectical theologians among you will introduce after the first three generations!”?

Even though the seed of this notion sprouted toward the end of the era of the Successors. (4)

Indeed, the very root of this doctrine—the doctrine of stripping Allah of His attributes—was actually taken (5) from the disciples of the Jews, the idol-worshippers, and the deviants among the Sabians.

The first (6) person known to have articulated this doctrine within Islam (7) was al-Jaʿd ibn Dirham; Jahm ibn Ṣafwān learned it (8) from him, propagated it, and the teaching of the Jahmiyyah was therefore ascribed (9) to him.

It has likewise been said that al-Jaʿd received his doctrine from Abān ibn Samʿān, and that Abān took it from