accidents and bodies as the speculative theologians have done—saying, for example, that He is neither a body nor an accident, and the like—the first to introduce this innovation into Islam were the Jahmiyyah and their followers among the Muʿtazilah. The assertion about Allah that He is neither a body nor a substance, and similar assertions, is not known to have arisen within this community through these people. Likewise, it was these people who introduced into Islam the argument that the world came into existence based on bodies and accidents. This is the foundation of speculative theology, which the imams of Islam, early and late, unanimously condemned.

When these people introduced the assertion that He is neither a body nor a substance, the opposing faction among the Shīʿah and others countered them, saying, “Rather, He is a body.” The early generations and the imams neither affirmed these designations for Allah nor denied them of Him. Both affirmation and denial involve religious innovation because these terms are ambiguous and have multiple meanings: they can be used to affirm falsehood and deny truth. Nevertheless, the early generations and the imams did not disagree that those who deny that Allah is a body are more misguided and more given to innovation than those who affirm it. Indeed, condemnations of the Jahmiyyah have been transmitted from the imams and the early generations through so many channels that only Allah can count them. They also made statements condemning those who liken Allah to His creation, but these are far fewer than their condemnations of the Jahmiyyah.

As for the term “body,” no condemnation or rejection of it is recorded from any of them, just as no commendation or endorsement of it is recorded from them. What is transmitted from them, however, consists of affirmative expressions. Those who deny that Allah is a body say that these expressions amount to corporealism, and count the leading figures and imams of the religion among the corporealists