the outward wording that people naturally understand from it, for the term “outward” (al-zahir) has become polysemous. The sense that counts as “outward” in sound innate dispositions, in pure Arabic, in the upright religion, and in the usage of the early generations is not the same as what many of the later scholars mean by that word (1). Thus, if the swearer intended by “the outward sense” any meaning peculiar to created beings, or one that entails any kind of deficiency—such as imagining that the istiwaʾ (rising) is like the rising of one body upon another, or like the rising of spirits (2) which, in his view, do not fall under the term “bodies” (3)—then he has broken his oath and uttered falsehood (4). I know of no one who ever said such a thing except what is reported from the likes of Dawud al-Jawaribi al-Basri (5), Muqatil ibn Sulayman al-Khurasani (6), and Hisham b
(1) In MS S and ed. T it reads “al-muta’akhkhirīn” (the latecomers).
(2) In the original the word is illegible. In S it appears as “arwāḥ” (spirits), a reading confirmed by T and al-Majmū‘.
(3) In S and T: “umam” (nations).
(4) In the original the passage following “kadhaba” is illegible. What remains is “wa ‘alá Allāh…” and the text reads coherently without the omitted portion, as seen in S, T, and al-Majmū‘.
(5) al-Dhahabī remarks of him in Lisan al-Mīzān 2/23: “A ringleader in rafdh (rejectionism) and anthropomorphism, destined for Hell.” Abū Bakr ibn Abī ‘Awn reports: “I heard Yazīd ibn Hārūn say: al-Jawāribī and al-Murrīsī are unbelievers.” And in Lisan al-Mīzān [Ibn Ḥajar] 2/427: Ibn Ḥazm states that this Dāwūd claimed his Lord is “flesh and blood in the form of a man.” For his views on anthropomorphism see al-Uṣūl fī al-Dīn by al-Baghdādī, p. 74, and al-Milal wa al-Niḥal by al-Shahrastānī 1/87.
(6) He was introduced above (p. 245), and the hadith scholars abandoned his transmissions. al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī notes in Tārīkh Baghdad 13/163: “…accused, abandoned by hadith transmitters, his statements neglected, and he spoke of the Divine attributes in a way that precludes reliable transmission.” He adds (ibid., p. 166), citing Abū Ḥanīfa: “Muqātil went so far in anthropomorphism that he likened God to His creation.” See also his positions on anthropomorphism and taʾṭīl in Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn by Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ash‘arī.