transmitted from them through numerous independent channels, and the hadiths transmitted from them in the same manner, indicate the opposite of what those who deny the divine attributes maintain and agree with the position of those who affirm them.

Likewise, no one can produce an authentic report from any of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, those who followed them in righteousness, the imams of the Muslims—the leaders of the well-known schools—or the early Muslim scholars that agrees with the position of those who deny the divine attributes. Rather, the widely transmitted reports from them agree with the position of those who affirm them. Attributing such a position to the adherents of the religion is therefore a manifest error.

However, practitioners of speculative theology and rational inquiry among the adherents of the religion disputed this fundamental issue when the doctrine of the Jahmiyyah, who deny the divine attributes, arose among them. This occurred after the first century AH, toward the end of the era of the Successors. Before this, no one among the adherents of the religion was known to deny the divine attributes or matters dependent on His choice that subsist in His essence.

When this doctrine arose and the Muʿtazilah adopted it, they said that accidents and newly occurring things do not inhere in Him. By this they meant that neither an attribute, such as knowledge or power, nor an act, such as creation or istiwā’ (rising over), subsists in Him. The imams of the early generations rejected this position, as is well known and established through numerous independent reports.

On this basis, the Muʿtazilah said that the Quran is created, for if it subsisted in His essence, this would entail that acts and attributes subsisted in Him. The early generations and the imams unanimously rejected this claim.