encompassing both truth and falsehood. Among them are groups who say, “He is a body,” and groups who say, “He is not a body.” Moreover, many—or most—of the imams of the Sunnah and hadith say that He is above His heavens, upon His Throne, distinct from His creation, with a limit. Some do not use the term “limit,” while others reject it.

Among those who recorded what they knew of the doctrines of the scholars of hadith and speculative theology on this matter—although he was more familiar with the doctrines of the speculative theologians—was Abū al-Hasan al-Ash‘arī, in his book The Doctrines of the Muslims and the Differences among Those Who Pray, from whose opening passages al-Rāzī and others derived