in their claim that the spirit, likewise, is not a body, cannot be pointed to, and is not located in one place rather than another, yet governs the body just as the Lord governs the world. Abū Hāmid’s statements on these matters, however, contain contradictions that this is not the place to examine exhaustively.

This makes clear what we have pointed out elsewhere: the doctrine of the Jahmiyyah is of the same kind as the religion of the Sabians who altered their religion. It has also been mentioned that his teacher, al-Jahd ibn Dirham, was one of their followers. The scholars among these people are the philosophers.

Thus, since the Mu'tazilites adopted the religion of the Jahmiyyah and followed these Sabian philosophers on many points—as it has been said, “The Mu'tazilites are the effeminate counterparts of the philosophers,” a remark recorded by more than one person versed in doctrinal positions—and since these Sabian philosophers have no common position on matters of divine knowledge, but instead exhibit such division and confusion concerning them