and admitted into Paradise has certainly triumphed” (Āl ʿImrān 3:185), he remarks, “What triumph could possibly be greater than entering Paradise and being saved from the Fire?!” At first sight this seems an excellent observation. In reality, however, he is using it to deny the beatific vision of Allah, for gazing upon Allah is the loftiest bliss, as He says: “For those who excel there shall be the best reward—and even more besides” (Yūnus 10:26). When you read his comment you will think it perfectly sound—surely there is no success greater than entering Paradise and escaping Hell—yet you will not notice that he is insinuating there is no vision at all, that Allah cannot be seen, whereas beholding Allah surpasses entry into Paradise and everything else. He has many such astonishing turns of phrase by which he toys with people’s minds. Unless you keep your guard and know the fundamentals of the Muʿtazilah and the principles of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamāʿah, you will be led astray. All this applies to whatever he says about the divine names and attributes and about their doctrine in general; when he speaks of rhetoric and the Arabic language, his work is excellent.

The Muʿtazilites have five foundations, as they themselves call them: tawḥīd (divine unity), justice, the intermediate position, the execution of the threat, and enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong. Their tawḥīd, however, is the Jahmite concept of oneness, whose substance is the negation of the attributes.

Explanation

They say, “We affirm Allah’s oneness; tawḥīd is one of our principles.” Yet the tawḥīd they intend bears an entirely different meaning. The same is true of “justice”—and justice is indeed a weighty principle, for Allah says, “Indeed, Allah commands justice and excellence” (al-Naḥl 16:90).