the Jahmiyya’s doctrine, does not find his natural disposition rejecting it and his reason necessarily repudiating it. Yet he follows his leaders and great men in disobeying the Messenger, until they change his natural disposition for the sake of the doctrine he found his father and mother following—or someone in a similar position, such as a master who owns him, a teacher, or the like.

They—I mean the speculative theologians who affirm the divine attributes—derived such arguments as they adopted from the early Muslims and the imams, although the statements of those early Muslims and imams contain precise insights that these theologians have not grasped.

Imam Ahmad said in his refutation of the heretics and the Jahmiyya:

“Among the things the misguided Jahmiyya denied was that Allah, glorified be He, is over the Throne. We said, ‘Why do you deny that Allah, glorified be He, is over the Throne, when He, glorified be He, has said:

“The Most Merciful established Himself over the Throne.” {5} [Tā Hā 5]

And He said:

“Then He established Himself over the Throne—the Most Merciful; so ask about Him one well informed.” {59} [al-Furqān 59]?’

They said, ‘He is beneath the seventh earth just as He is over the Throne,