The Mu'tazilah deny Allah’s being above His creation and His attributes, and call anyone who affirms them a corporealist and a Hashwī. When Allah Most High granted him this spiritual opening, he said, “By Allah, the truth is precisely what these Hashwiyyah and corporealists hold”—or words to that effect, for it has been a long time since I heard this account.

Whenever this Shaykh al-Kubrā was told, “Anyone who says, ‘The Most Merciful rose over the Throne,’ is a corporealist,” he would reply, “Then take note: in that case, I am a corporealist.” He was among the most eminent shaykhs of his time in his homeland, the regions of Jurjān and Khwārazm.

[Continuation of Ibn Hazm’s remarks]

Abū Muhammad ibn Hazm said:

“Further clear proof of the falsity of this pernicious doctrine is that no one with any knowledge of historical accounts—whether Muslim, Jew, Christian, Magian, Manichaean, or materialist—doubts that, from the time he was sent, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, continually called vast numbers of people to believe in Allah Most High, in him, and in what he brought. He fought those among the people of the earth who fought him in stubborn opposition, and deemed it lawful to shed their blood, take their women and children captive, and seize their property—seeking nearness to Allah Most High thereby—and to exact the jizyah