Yet those whose hearts are wayward—people of capricious desires—grasp nothing from the words of Allah, His Messenger, the first forerunners, and those who followed them with excellence on the subject of Allah’s attributes, except the kinds of meanings (1) that befit created beings rather than the Creator. They then seek to wrench the words of Allah and His Messenger from their proper contexts whenever they think they can find such meanings there; and if they encounter similar wording in the speech of the followers of the early generations, they invent lies about them, quoting them according to the false understanding they have arrived at, or else adding to their phrases, or altering them in wording or description (2)—exactly as we hear from their own tongues and witness in their books.

Some who think well of these transmitters may go on to repeat this doctrine in their name, condemning and taking oaths against something that does not, in fact, exist; thus their censure falls upon a characterization that has no reality—much like what Allah, Exalted is He, related from His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, when he said:

“Are you not amazed at how Allah turns the abuse of Quraysh away from me? They revile ‘Mudhammam,’ while I am Muhammad.” (3)

This is akin to the tales the Rāfiḍah circulate about Ahl al-Sunnah among the scholars of hadith and jurisprudence.