—the particular proposition at issue—then their rejection of it in unrestricted, general propositions encompassing this and other matters is all the stronger.

As for the elites of the nations, it is well known that the position of those who negate has not been transmitted from any prophet. Rather, everything transmitted from the prophets accords with the position of those who affirm. Likewise, nothing has been transmitted from the finest members of this community—the Companions and those who followed them in righteousness—except what accords with the position of those who affirm.

The first to espouse the position of those who negate were al-Ja‘d ibn Dirham and al-Jahm ibn Safwān. They lived in the early second century AH, and the Muslims put them to death. As for the other imams of the Muslims, such as Mālik, al-Thawrī, al-Awzā‘ī, Abū Hanīfah, al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and others, books are filled with reports from them that accord with the position of those who affirm.

The same applies to the spiritual masters, such as al-Fudayl ibn ‘Iyād, Bishr al-Hāfī, Ahmad ibn Abī al-Hawārī, Sahl ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Tustarī, ‘Amr ibn ‘Uthmān al-Makkī, al-Hārith al-Muhāsibī, Muhammad ibn Khafīf al-Shīrāzī, and others.

The books of those devoted to transmitted reports are filled with accounts from the early generations and the imams that accord with the position of those who affirm. Not a single reliably transmitted statement from any of them accords with the position of those who negate.

If, then, the imams’ predecessors, the community’s imams, and its finest generations agree on the position of those who affirm, how can anyone say:

“This is merely the position of the Karrāmiyyah and the Hanbalīs”?

It is well known that the position of those who affirm was more widespread before the time of Ahmad ibn Hanbal than it is in the present age. How, then, can it be attributed to his followers?