are asked about how to interpret them, we offer no interpretation; nor have we found anyone who does.” End of quotation.

Abu ʿUbayd was one of the four leading imams—al-Shafiʿi, Ahmad, Ishaq, and Abu ʿUbayd himself. His mastery of jurisprudence, language, and interpretation is too famous to need elaboration, and he lived at a time when tribulations and heterodox leanings had begun to spread. Yet he affirmed that he never encountered a single scholar who attempted such an explanation—that is, the interpretation advanced by the Jahmiyyah.

The statement of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak:

Al-Lalakāʾī and al-Bayhaqī relate that a man once said to ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, “O Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, I find myself averse to the Attribute”—meaning the attribute of the Lord—, whereupon he replied