Among the reprehensible schools of thought are the Anthropomorphists and the Muʿtazilah. These are the very factions the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, spoke of in his statement: “This community will divide into seventy-three sects, all of them in the Fire….” (1) They are condemned because they have left the path of truth; only those who follow the course taken by the Messenger of Allah and his Companions will be spared the Fire, and for that reason they are called the Saved Sect.

The word madhāhib here simply means “opinions.”

The Anthropomorphists are those who liken the attributes of Allah to the attributes of created beings.

The Muʿtazilah are those who negate and deny Allah’s attributes on the pretext of exalting Him, but in doing so they take transcendence to an unwarranted extreme. They are the followers of Wāṣil ibn ʿAṭāʾ and ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd, both of whom had been students of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī and used to attend his study circle. When al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī was asked about the status of a person who commits a major sin, he replied in a manner that