human beings. He was thus created solely by the word, unlike the vast majority of human beings, just as Adam and Eve were also created in a manner other than the customary one. Thus Jesus, peace be upon him, was created solely by the word, unlike all other human beings.

On this subject—the attribution of things to Allah Most High—two groups have gone astray.

One group treats everything attributed to Allah as an attribution signifying creation and ownership, like the attribution of the House and the she-camel to Him. This is the position of those who deny the divine attributes among the Jahmiyyah, the Mu‘tazilah, and those who agree with them. Even Ibn ‘Aqīl, Ibn al-Jawzī, and others like them, when they inclined toward the Mu‘tazilah’s position, followed this approach. They said, “These are verses of attribution, not verses concerning the divine attributes.” Ibn ‘Aqīl stated this in his book entitled Nafy al-Tashbīh wa-Ithbāt al-Tanzīh (Negating Likeness and Affirming Transcendence), as did Abū al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzī in Minhāj al-Wusūl (The Path to Attainment) and elsewhere. This is also the position of Ibn Hazm and others like him who agreed with the Jahmiyyah in denying the divine attributes, even though they identified with hadith and the Sunnah.

An opposing group treats everything attributed to Him as an attribute of His and holds that the spirit is beginningless. Some of them hold that a servant’s spirit is beginningless, citing His saying: