that things originate, that things come into being from the two, and that the two are inseparable from what came after them, which is likewise inseparable from them.

“Likewise, you claimed that the One of whom it is said, ‘There is nothing like unto Him’ [al-Shūrā: 11]—exalted is He above what you say—was without limit, then created things inseparable from Him, while He is inseparable from them: He does not part from them, nor do they part from Him. Thus you have magnified their conception while refusing its verbal expression.”

To this it may be said: What Ibn Kullāb mentioned concerning the Jahmiyya’s actual agreement with the Dahriyya and the dualists is borne out by what the extremist Jahmiyya—the Qarmatian esotericists—did. They fashioned for themselves a doctrine combining that of the Dahriyya philosophers with that of the dualist Magians. Their doctrine is the ultimate development of the Jahmiyya’s doctrine.

This fulfilled the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in the authentic hadith:

“My community will surely follow the path of the nations before it, span by span and cubit by cubit.”

They asked, “The Persians and Romans?”

He replied, “Who else among mankind but these?”