while denying any likeness whatsoever. Just as He possesses knowledge and we possess knowledge—yet His knowledge is nothing like ours—and just as we possess power and He possesses power—yet His power is nothing like our power—the same is to be said of the report-based attributes.

One of them argued: “There is no difference between our knowledge and His except that ours is created and His is pre-eternal. Consequently, if we affirm for Him a Face and the like, it must be identical to our faces save for this distinction of createdness versus eternality.”

The opponents at once perceived the falsity and reprehensibility of such a claim, both in the Sharīʿah and in sound reason, and realized that any doctrine entailing implications of this sort is among the most corrupt of doctrines.

This statement is a mere offshoot of the dogma espoused by the previously mentioned Bāṭiniyyah, who deny all affirmative and negative attributes as well as the Divine Names. In their fear of the alleged anthropomorphism, they stripped the Lord of every one of these perfections.

Our purpose here is to set out the reply to the Bāṭiniyyah Qarmatians. The answer we have given corresponds to one of two well-known positions—namely, that two things may resemble one another in one respect while differing in another. This, which is the view of the great majority and is explicitly reported from Aḥmad and others, is the correct position.

Another group declared such a possibility impossible, maintaining that only two alternatives are conceivable: complete likeness in every respect or complete difference in every respect. According to them, all bodies are identical in every respect, whereas diverse accidents and genera—such as blackness and whiteness—differ in every respect.