Allah on the Day of Resurrection and abandon the explanation of Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his Companions, except an ignorant madman, ruined and deceived? For you are misguided in religion, feeble-minded, and untrustworthy in interpreting Allah’s Book. Woe to you! Does Allah bring about the Resurrection while He Himself remains absent? Who, then, will call people to account that Day? I fear for anyone who follows this view of yours, for he does not believe in the Day of Reckoning.

You claimed, O al-Marīsī, concerning Allah’s words:

‘Allah—there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of all existence.’

(al-Baqarah: 255)

You claimed that, in your view, ‘the Sustainer’ means ‘He who does not pass away,’ by which you mean that He neither descends nor moves, neither contracts nor extends.

You attributed this through an unnamed associate of yours, from al-Kalbī, from Abū Sālih, from Ibn ‘Abbās, who reportedly said: ‘The Sustainer is He who does not pass away.’

Yet there are indications and evidence that this report of yours from Ibn ‘Abbās is false:

First: you transmitted it, although you yourself are suspect concerning Allah’s oneness.

Second: you transmitted it through an unnamed associate of yours, and your associates are subject to suspicion and accusation just as you are.