Ninth aspect:
Muhammad ibn al-Hasan has cited the consensus (1) that one must give legal verdicts on the subject of the Divine attributes strictly in accordance with the Book or the sunnah, never on the basis of Jahm’s statement, which is nothing but negation. Therefore, whoever says, “The hadiths and verses on the attributes should not be presented to the common people, should not be sent to other regions, and should not figure in the fatwas that concern them; instead, one should adopt the stance of negation,” has opposed that consensus. The most lenient judgement ever pronounced about such people is the saying of al-Shafi‘i, may Allah be pleased with him:
“My ruling regarding the practitioners of kalām is that they be beaten with palm branches and sandals, paraded among the tribes and clans, and it be proclaimed: ‘This is the recompense for the one who abandoned the Book and the sunnah and turned to speculative theology.’” (2)

Tenth aspect:
As for someone who says, “The hadiths and verses on the attributes must not be presented to the laity, nor dispatched to other lands, nor included in the relevant fatwas,” he must mean either that these verses and hadiths are not to be recited before the ordinary believers. Yet the falsity of that is known by sheer necessity in the religion of the Muslims. Indeed, if this statement (3) is taken in absolute terms it is outright disbelief, for the Ummah is unanimously agreed—as they know (4) by necessity—that these verses are recited in both the obligatory and supererogatory prayers and that all believers listen to them. Likewise, reciting them, teaching them (5) and listening to them outside the prayer is part of the religion over which no Muslim disagrees, and the same applies to conveying the hadiths in