al-Bukhārī, compiler of the Sahīh, in his book Khalq al-Afʿāl (The Creation of Actions): “It makes no difference to me whether I pray behind a Jahmī or a Rāfidī, or behind a Jew or a Christian. They are not to be greeted with salām or visited when ill; one must not intermarry with them, they must not serve as witnesses, and their slaughtered animals must not be eaten.” He also reported that Abd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī said: “They are two religions, so beware of them: the Jahmiyyah and the Rāfidah.”

With this understood, the Jahmiyyah openly proclaimed their position on the Quran—that it is created—and openly declared that Allah will not be seen in the Hereafter. Yet they did not openly disclose to ordinary believers and their scholars their denial that Allah is above the Throne, or their claim that He is neither within the world nor outside it. Rather, scholars discerned these beliefs in them through inference and perceptive observation, just as hypocrites are recognized by the tenor of their speech. In the words of