are thereby true monotheists, and that whoever differs from them on this point has, in their view, departed from tawḥīd. Yet this very notion (1) is among the greatest foundations of the polytheists and atheists, by which they corrupted the monotheism (2) for which Allah sent His messengers and revealed His Books. Although this newly-invented principle (3) has been beautified for these people and for others among the Muslims who face the qiblah, so that they imagine that by it they are affirming tawḥīd (4) and doing good—indeed, they have called themselves “the people of tawḥīd,” to the exclusion of others who are more deserving of affirming Allah’s oneness than they are—they went so far as to pronounce Muslims who truly uphold tawḥīd to be unbelievers and to treat them with enmity. They have thus proved more harmful to the ummah than the renegade Khārijites, who kill Muslims and spare the idol-worshippers. The Kalābiyyah and Ashʿariyyah only adopted this idea from the Muʿtazilah and Jahmiyyah, without agreeing with them on every detail; they concurred with them on some points and not on others. It is, in fact, the very principle of Jahm upon which he built his misguidance (5).

These people explain tawḥīd and Allah’s name al-Wāḥid (the One) within the foundations of their creed as comprising three meanings (6). Yet none (7) of those meanings embodies the tawḥīd for which Allah sent His messengers and revealed His Books. They then differ greatly about how to substantiate those meanings, saying (8) with regard to the name al-Wāḥid, “The One has three (9) senses:”