… as in possessive phrases such as “the house” or “the she-camel.” This is the position of those who deny the divine attributes – the Jahmiyya, the Muʿtazila and everyone who follows them. Even scholars like Ibn ʿAqil, Ibn al-Jawzi and the like, whenever they leaned toward Muʿtazili teaching, adopted this approach and declared: “These are verses of annexation, not verses of attributes.” Ibn ʿAqil says so explicitly in his book Nafi at-Tashbih wa-Ithbat at-Tanzih, and Ibn al-Jawzi repeats it in Minhaj al-Usul and elsewhere. The same view is found in Ibn Ḥazm and others who sided with the Jahmiyya in rejecting the attributes, even though they claimed affiliation with hadith and the sunnah. Al-Hafiz Ibn Rajab states in Dhayl at-Ṭabaqat, 1/144: “Our Hanbali colleagues reproached Ibn ʿAqil for frequenting Ibn al-Walid and Ibn at-Tabban, the two Muʿtazili shaykhs, with whom he secretly studied kalam. At times a certain deviation from the sunnah and an allegorical reading of some attributes appeared from him, and traces of that remained with him until he died.” Al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir writes in al-Bidaya, 12/184: “He used to meet all scholars regardless of their school; his companions sometimes blamed him for this, but he paid no attention. Because of that he outstripped his peers and became the leading scholar of his age in many fields, while remaining devout, upright, handsome and constantly engaged in study.” Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar says in Lisan al-Mizan, 4/243: “This man was one of the great imams. True, he had been a Muʿtazili, but he produced witnesses to attest to his repentance, which was accepted as genuine. He then authored refutations against them. Scholars of his time and later praised him highly; Ibn al-Jawzi lauded him and relied on his words in most of his own works.” (1) Ibn Rajab adds: “His largest composition is al-Funun, an exceedingly voluminous book containing many valuable points on preaching, tafsir, fiqh, the two usul, grammar, language, poetry, history and anecdotes; it also records his debates, sessions, reflections and the fruits of his thought.” Ibn al-Jawzi says: “The work runs to two hundred volumes; I have seen roughly one hundred and fifty.” His grandson reports in Mirʾat al-Zaman, 8/151: “My grandfather produced a ten-volume abridgment and distributed it through his other books. I personally examined about seventy volumes of it in Baghdad at the Maʾmuniyya endowment; it contains narratives, debates, curiosities, marvels and poetry.” ʿAbd ar-Razzaq ar-Rassaʿni relates in his Tafsir: “Abu l-Baqaʾ the linguist told me that he heard Shaykh Abu Ḥakim an-Nahrawani say, ‘I handled the three-hundred-and-fourth fascicle of al-Funun.’” Imam adh-Dhahabi writes in Tarikh al-Islam: “Someone who had seen part of it told me …” (the report breaks off here).