Al-Shāfiʿī, may Allah Most High be pleased with him, said:
“Innovation is of two kinds: an innovation that contradicts the Quran, the Sunnah, scholarly consensus, or a report from any of the Companions of Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace—this is an innovation of misguidance; and an innovation that contradicts none of these, which may be good, as indicated by ʿUmar’s statement: ‘What an excellent innovation this is!’”
Al-Bayhaqī related this statement, or words to this effect, with an authentic chain of transmission in al-Madkhal (The Introduction).
It is well known that the position of those who deny seeing Allah, His attributes, and His being above the Throne, and who say that Allah did not speak but instead created speech in something other than Himself—their denial of these matters on the grounds that affirming them ascribes a body to Allah—is closer to contradicting the Quran, the Sunnah, the consensus of the early generations, and the transmitted reports than the position of someone who affirms these matters while also using expressions which, he says, accord with the meaning of the Quran and the Sunnah. This is especially so because the deniers agree that, in their view, the apparent meanings of the scriptural texts ascribe a body to Allah, yet they have no scriptural text supporting their denial. They thus acknowledge that their own position is the innovation, whereas their opponent’s position is closer to the Sunnah.
This is further illustrated by the fact that the early generations and the leading scholars frequently condemned the Jahmiyyah who deny Allah’s attributes. They also condemned those who liken Allah to His creation, but such condemnation occurs far less frequently in their statements than their condemnation of the Jahmiyyah, because the disease of denying Allah’s attributes is more serious than the disease of likening Him to His creation. As for references to ascribing a body to Allah and condemnation of those who do so, these are not known in the statements of any of the early generations or the leading scholars. Nor are statements that Allah is a body, or is not a body, known in their words. Rather, they cited the denial that Allah is a body among the statements for which they censured the Jahmiyyah, as Ahmad did in his Refutation of the Jahmiyyah.
When Ahmad debated Barghūth, and the latter argued that Ahmad’s position entailed that Allah is a body, Ahmad refused to agree with him either in denying or affirming this. He said:
“He is One, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent.”