and others, when they wished to describe the freedom from imperfections that befits Allah, would cite Sūrat al-Ikhlās, which is equivalent to one-third of the Quran, explaining that it comprehensively covers everything to be denied of Him in this regard.

Thus, when the Jahmiyyah—such as Abū ‘Īsā Muhammad ibn ‘Īsā Barghūth and others from Basra and Baghdad—debated Imam Ahmad and spoke of the body and its necessary implications, Ahmad cited Sūrat al-Ikhlās to them. The freedom from imperfections affirmed therein is the truth, unlike the false additional meanings they included under the term “body.”

Their discourse revolves around two principles: denying likeness and denying corporeality, which is composition and combination. Hence, among the creeds in which transcendence is denied, mention is made of “belief free from likening Allah to creation and ascribing corporeality to Him.”