This second view is championed by the extremist Qarmati Bāṭinīs, such as Abū Yaʿqūb al-Sijistānī, author of al-Aqālīd al-Malakūtiyya, and others of his stripe; their chief premise is the wholesale negation of any likeness between the Creator and creation. Al-Sijistānī puts it plainly in his book al-Iftikhār, saying:

“Come, O diverse nations, that we may show you the source of our pride, expose your nakedness, and lay bare your flaws. Let us begin with tawḥīd. I say: You have accused us of taʿṭīl and called yourselves ‘people of tawḥīd,’ yet you are more deserving of the charge you level against us and more tightly bound to it, whereas we are worthier of the name you claim for yourselves. For you know with certainty that we affirm an Originator for this world—One who brought it into being out of nothing: without matter, without substrate, without instrument, without helper, and without any pre-existent exemplar whose image He followed. This is the doctrine we proclaim openly, and our call to it has spread far and wide.”