—indeed, they would have spoken it out plainly, but the fear of the sword keeps them from making it public.

He said (1): A man known as Ibn al-Iyadi (2) did in fact voice this view openly. He espoused their doctrine and maintained that the Creator is knowing, powerful, hearing, and seeing only metaphorically, not in reality.

This statement—advanced by the extremist deniers who reject the divine names in their true sense—is the very creed of the Batinite Qarmatis, and before them of their brethren, the Sabian philosophers.

The second level of Jahmism is the Jahmism of the Muʿtazilah and the like. They concede Allah’s most beautiful names in general, yet deny His attributes. Even regarding the names, they do not affirm all of them in their literal sense; rather, they treat many of them as figurative. These are the well-known Jahmites.

As for the third level, it comprises (3) the ṣifātiyyah who affirm the attributes, (4) standing in opposition to the Jahmites, yet still retaining a measure of Jahmism. They acknowledge Allah’s names and attributes in principle, but reject a group of His khabari (scriptural) or other attributes, interpreting them away just as the earlier Jahmites interpreted away all the attributes. Among them are those who accept the khabari attributes mentioned in the Quran but not those reported in hadith, as is the case with many theologians, jurists, and a faction of hadith scholars. Others accept, in broad terms, the attributes transmitted in the reports as well, yet still deny some matters that are established by both textual evidence and sound reason. Such was the stance of Abu Muhammad ibn Kullab and those who followed him; included in this category are also Abu al-Hasan al-Ashʿari and groups among the jurists, theologians, and hadith scholars.