the nations—those who deny the Creator. These are the most ignorant and least rational of all groups. Hence, the Arabs did not oppose the message with such specious arguments. Allah Most High attributed views resembling those of the Jahmiyyah only to such deniers as Pharaoh and others like him, including the man who disputed with Abraham concerning his Lord.

There is no doubt that such deniers are worse than polytheists. Although the Arabs were polytheists, denial of the Creator was not prevalent among them. There may nevertheless have been individuals in their midst who doubted the Creator or denied Him, just as such people are found within every nation. They are found even among those who perform the prayers, for hypocrites, in their various forms, have always existed within the Muslim community.

Once it is understood that the purpose is to expose the falsity of the claim that the Messenger cannot be believed except through the method of the Jahmiyyah—a method incompatible with affirming what he conveyed concerning Allah’s attributes, speech, and actions—the intended purpose has been achieved.

As for those who say that these rational arguments conflict with the apparent meaning of the Quranic verses and hadiths, without saying that knowledge of the Messenger’s truthfulness depends upon them: this is the position of those who consider this method sound—the method of establishing the existence of the Creator through the temporal origination of accidents and the composition of bodies—even though they maintain that the Messenger can be believed without it. This is the position of al-Ashʿarī himself, many of his followers, al-Rāzī and others like him, and many jurists, hadith scholars, and Sufis. Something of this is found in the writings of al-Muhāsibī, Abū Hātim al-Bustī, al-Khattābī, Abū al-Hasan al-Tamīmī, Judge Abū Yaʿlā, Ibn ʿAqīl, Ibn al-Zāghūnī, and others. These people, along with the majority of Muslims, say that it