It is indisputably clear that the Salaf—those whom the entire Muslim community acknowledges as the foremost leaders of the religion—reproved them for that claim. Consequently, you are censuring the very Salaf whose leadership in the faith is unanimously affirmed, while in the judgment of those Salaf and the leading scholars of the religion you yourselves stand condemned (1). By doing so you resemble the Rāfiḍah and the Khārijites, and all others who vilify the predecessors and the Imams of the ummah. This is no exaggeration, for the statement you uphold is but an offshoot of the Jahmiyyah doctrine, and within the Jahmiyyah’s position there is a degree of belittling, abusing, and attacking the Salaf, the Imams, and the Sunnah that is not found even among the Khārijites or the Rāfiḍah.

The Khārijites, after all, venerate the Qur’an and deem adherence to it obligatory—though they reject reports whose wording seems, outwardly, to conflict with the Qur’an—and they disparage ʿAlī, ʿUthmān, and those who supported them, even if they do not revile Abū Bakr and ʿUmar.

The Jahmiyyah, however, do not merely fail to require following the Qur’an on the subject of Allah’s attributes; they actually deem it impermissible to do so, as they openly state—such as al-Rāzī (2) and others from the Muʿtazilah and similar groups—let alone following the Sunnah or the consensus of the Salaf. Thus the Jahmiyyah surpass all other sectarians in their disparagement of the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the Companions and the Followers. For this reason the scholars, both from our school and from others (3), have differed over whether they are to be included among the two