from ascertaining the truth. Every one of these false labels of praise and blame rests, for those who use it, on some specious argument in which one thing is confused with another. Indeed, the proponents of falsehood may go even further, as when some heretics who profess poverty call the mosque “the idlers’ stable.” This is common among those who give truth the name of falsehood and falsehood the name of truth. These are all names that they and their forefathers have devised, for which Allah has sent down no authority. They have done this only because of specious arguments founded on invalid analogy.

Such are the specious arguments of the Jahmiyyah and their analogy that, if Allah had attributes inseparable from Him, He would be dependent on something other than Himself. Thus, on account of the very attributes for which He deserves praise, commendation, and glory—though He is the Self-Sufficient, upon whom all depend—they call Him dependent on another. This claim of theirs is falsehood for which Allah has sent down no authority.

The seventeenth point: His statement, “That which depends for its existence on something else