neither the Book of Allah nor the Sunnah of His Messenger, nor the words of any of the Companions, the Successors, or the leading scholars of the generation after the Successors, contain any condemnation of the mushabbihah (those who liken Allah to creation), any condemnation of such likening, or any rejection of the doctrine of likening, or anything similar. Condemnation of this became widespread only through the Jahmīs, as Imam Ahmad mentioned.

Then some among those who affirm Allah’s attributes, the Rāfidīs, and the extremists among the adherents of hadith opposed them. They went so far in affirmation that they fell into asserting the likeness denied in the Book and Sunnah. This is a blameworthy form of likening. The surviving scholars of the generation after the Successors and the later imams of the Sunnah therefore condemned this likening and condemned the mushabbihah in this sense.

Thus, the term mushabbihah became a term of condemnation in their discourse, just as it was in the discourse of the Jahmīs, but the two meanings differ greatly. For this reason, they would explain what they meant, saying, “Whoever goes to extremes in rejecting likening and condemning the mushabbihah is a Jahmī,” as related by ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Abī Hātim and Abū al-Qāsim al-Lālakā’ī from ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn ‘Umar