So when you read these principles you may well say, “These are sound foundations,” yet once you look into how they interpret them you discover that they are in fact false.

As for their doctrine of tawḥīd (monotheism), it is the Jahmiyyah’s version, whose essence is to deny Allah’s attributes and more besides. They claim that Allah will not be seen, that the Qur’an is created, that the Exalted is not above the universe, and that no attribute resides in Him at all—no knowledge, no power, no life, no hearing, no sight, no speech, no will—nothing whatsoever.

Explanation

Accordingly, tawḥīd in their view is to strip Allah of His attributes. When they say, “Declare the oneness of Allah,” they mean: divest Him of every attribute. For, they argue, if you affirm any attribute for Him you have likened Him to others and are therefore not a monotheist. Yet true tawḥīd is built on two pillars: negation and affirmation. The very verb “to make one” (waḥḥada) demands both. There is no tawḥīd in affirmation alone, nor in negation alone: pure negation is sheer nullification, while bare affirmation still allows others to share in what you affirmed. Real tawḥīd exists only when both negation and affirmation are combined.

Consider the statement, “There is no one standing.” This is pure negation; you have denied standing for everyone, which is nullification. Say instead, “Zayd is standing.” That is affirmation, but it does not rule out the possibility that ʿAmr or Khālid may also be standing. Only when you say, “No one is standing except Zayd,” have you achieved tawḥīd: you have confined the quality of standing to a single individual—Zayd.

The same applies to the declaration, “There is no god except Allah.” Yet these people insist that tawḥīd means never affirming any attribute for Allah—may Allah keep us safe—so, in their view, He possesses neither hearing nor sight, no power, no life, no knowledge—nothing at all.