feebly, saying, “Woe to you all! Kill him, for by Allah he is a heretic! I have debated people of this kind in Khurāsān.” He said, “So we took him out.”’”

I say: The people to whom ‘Alī ibn ‘Āsim referred may have been followers of those Magians who affirm two principles—light and darkness—and hold that the two have intermingled and blended. Like the Jahmiyyah, they affirm nothing above the world. Ibn Kullāb’s discussion of the Mu‘tazilah’s resemblance to the dualists and eternalists has already been cited.

If, then, the leading authorities followed by the author of al-Ta’sīs and the early adherents of his school say that He is light, how can he claim a consensus to the contrary? For the interpretations he presents in his book are those of Bishr al-Marīsī, who is the leading authority for those who adopt such interpretations, as we shall point out, Allah willing.

Such is the position of these Jahmī deniers of the divine attributes. The same is true of the corporealists: al-Ash‘arī reports in his Book of Doctrines that the Hishāmiyyah, the followers of Hishām ibn al-Hakam, say that He is a radiant light of a certain size, occupying one place rather than another, like a pure ingot, gleaming like a round pearl from