of these views among the Hanafī, Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, and Hanbalī jurists, the scholars of hadith, and the Sufis. Their peers and counterparts say that they contradict themselves, as do their opponents among the Muʿtazilah, Rāfidah, outright Jahmiyyah, and others. Yet these opponents’ own contradictions and incoherence are many times greater—not to mention the contradictions and incoherence of the philosophers, which Allah alone can count.

Thus, the later Ashʿarīs say that their predecessors contradict themselves by maintaining that Allah Most High is above the Throne while denying that He is a body. They also say that their predecessors contradict themselves by affirming the attributes reported in revelation while likewise denying that He is a body. Their earlier representatives, together with all the other groups that negate the attributes, say, concerning the position maintained by their later representatives, that anyone who affirms that Allah will be seen while denying that He is above