and Sahl ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Tustarī, ‘Umar ibn ‘Uthmān al-Makkī, Abū ‘Uthmān al-Naysābūrī, Abū ‘Abd Allāh ibn Khafīf al-Shīrāzī, Yahyā ibn Mu‘ādh al-Rāzī, and others like them have made so many statements affirming the divine attributes and condemning the Jahmiyya and the Hulūliyya that this discussion cannot accommodate even a tenth of them.

Indeed, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlī—may Allah sanctify his soul—was once asked, “Has Allah ever had a saint whose creed differed from that of Ahmad ibn Hanbal?”

He replied, “There never has been, nor will there ever be.”

The creed is attributed to Ahmad only because he brought it to light and explained it when innovations emerged. Otherwise, it is nothing other than the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger. Ahmad’s share in it is like that of the other early Muslims: knowing it, believing in it, conveying it, and defending it. As one of the great shaykhs said, “The creed belongs to Mālik, al-Shāfi‘ī, and other such imams; its public vindication belongs to Ahmad ibn Hanbal.”

This was because he lived after the first three generations, when the innovation of the Jahmiyya and their notorious inquisition emerged. They sought to establish the doctrine of those who deny the divine attributes and to negate the realities of the divine names and attributes, misleading those caliphs whom they managed to deceive. Allah upheld Islam and the Sunnah through Ahmad ibn Hanbal and other imams of the religion. Through them, the Sunnah prevailed and the flames of the inquisition were extinguished. They thus became beacons for the people of Islam and imams for the Muslim scholars who came after him: the people of the Sunnah and the community.

Everyone claiming adherence to the Sunnah must therefore maintain allegiance to him and to them, and agree with them on the broad principles of the creed, for this was the creed of those who followed guidance and sound judgment, holding fast to the Book, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the earliest pioneers and those who followed them in goodness.

The imams of the Sunnah are not like the imams of innovation, for in the case of the imams of the Sunnah, the Sunnah is attributed