that the Maker, Most High, exists—is the method of the Jahmiyyah, the Mu'tazilah, and similar proponents of speculative theology, which the early generations condemned and which was newly introduced into Islam. They are the ones who innovated this method, arguing by it, accepting its necessary implications, and deriving further conclusions from it—even if some non-Muslims shared in this or preceded them in it, whether Sabians, Jews, or others.

The point is that this method first appeared within Islam through these innovating theologians, and it is one of their most fundamental principles.

This and similar methods constitute the speculative theology that the early generations of the Muslim community and its leading scholars unanimously condemned and prohibited, declaring its proponents ignorant and misguided. They pursued unsound methods of argument and relied on premises containing falsehoods. These committed them to conclusions that contradicted the texts of the Quran and Sunnah and the clear dictates of reason. Thus, they were ignorant, untruthful, and unjust in many of their conclusions, methods, judgments, and proofs.

The statements of the early generations and the leading scholars condemning this are numerous and well known throughout Islamic literature, and no one who has acquired even a little learning can have failed to hear of