“And I breathed into him of My spirit,” and they are of the same kind as the Christians who say that Jesus’ spirit is from the essence of Allah Most High.

Some of these people identify with the people of the Sunnah and hadith, and with Imam Ahmad and other imams of the Sunnah, including a group from Tabaristān and Jīlān, and followers of Shaykh ‘Adī and others.

A third group withholds judgment concerning the servant’s spirit: is it created or not? They identify with the Sunnah and hadith and include followers of Ahmad and others. The dispute among the later followers of Ahmad and others concerns attributions found in transmitted texts, such as the Face, the Hand, and the spirit. The Mu‘tazilah, however, apply this approach consistently to speech and other things.

Ahmad has set out a refutation of the first two groups. These two groups also go astray concerning attribution expressed with min (“from”), for the genitive term in an attribution is treated in the same way as the attributed term. Examples include His saying, Most High:

“But the word from Me has come into effect,”

and His saying, Most High:

“and a spirit from Him.”

Both groups treat the word that is from Him like the spirit that is from Him. Those who deny the divine attributes then say, “The spirit is created and separate from Him; therefore, the word is created and separate from Him.” Those who hold to divine indwelling say, “The word is an attribute of His, not of a created being; therefore, the spirit that is from Him is an attribute of His and is not created.”