and dedicated it to him, supposing that his prestige would help it circulate and believing that he favored the doctrine of those who negate the divine attributes. Yet the king was not one of these deniers, as his son al-Ashraf and others reported of him. Rather, his conduct showed his love and esteem for those who affirm the divine attributes. Allah knows best his actual views on subtle, difficult questions.

What is known of his and his family’s reverence for hadith and its scholars, and their efforts to revive its study, is incompatible with the approach al-Rāzī championed in his “Foundation of Sanctification,” although some members of his family inclined toward negation and others toward affirmation. Perhaps some of his entourage inclined toward negation, while al-Rāzī’s renown was such that those who negated the attributes sought his assistance. Allah knows best [about] such circumstances.

In the preface to his book, he included material of the same kind as the sermons of the Jahmiyyah, such as those Ahmad ibn Abī Du’ād used to deliver, following the approach of Bishr