are nothing but a narrative coined to stand in for the Qur’an; Allah, they say, spoke once and will never speak again. Yet they go on to declare, “It is uncreated, and whoever says it is created is a disbeliever.” Such talk is merely bait with which they angle for the hearts of the common people among Ahl al-Sunnah, whereas their real doctrine is that the Qur’an does not exist at all. The male Jahmites spewed out this notion once, while the female Ashʿarites have spewed it ten times over.

Those former ones said, “No attribute.” These latter maintain instead: wajh (face)—no more than the “face of the day,” the “face of the affair,” or the “face of a report”; ʿayn (eye) like the “eye of merchandise”; hearing like the wall’s ear, and sight as in the saying, “their two walls can see each other”; a hand such as the hand of bounty and gift; fingers, as they say, “Khurasan lies between the governor’s two fingers (1)”; feet, as in the expression, “I have placed the dispute under my feet”; and qabḍa (grasp) as people remark, “So-and-so is in my grasp,” meaning, “I control his affair.”

They further state—he said (2)—and (3) the kursī is knowledge, the ʿarsh is sovereignty, laughter is contentment, istiwāʾ is domination, nuzūl is acceptance, and harwala (hastening) the same. Thus they indulge in anthropomorphism from one angle and denial from another; they contradict the early generations, overstep the plain wording, overthrow the foundation, affirm nothing, leave nothing existent, and fail to distinguish between interpretation and mere verbal paraphrase (4).

Then they claim, “We do not interpret these texts; we let them stand in Arabic exactly as they came,” yet they have already foisted upon them those vile interpretations. By this charlatanry (5) they sought to drive the ordinary Muslims still farther away from the matter (6), leaving them all the more bewildered, so that they might