Forty-seventh argument:

The terms “body,” “accident,” “spatially located,” and the like are technical expressions. We have already explained more than once that the early generations and the imams did not use these expressions regarding Allah, whether to affirm or deny them. Rather, they declared those who engaged in such theological discourse to be innovators and condemned them in the strongest terms. The deniers of the attributes were the best-known users of such language. None of the early generations condemned anyone as a corporealist or condemned corporealists as such. Rather, they condemned the Jahmiyyah, who denied the attributes, for this and other reasons. They also condemned those who likened Allah to His creation by saying that His attributes were like the attributes of created beings. Among their reasons for condemning the terms “body,” “accident,” and the like was [the] ambiguity and obscuring of the truth inherent in these expressions. As Imam Ahmad said:

“They speak in ambiguous terms and confuse the ignorant with the ambiguities they present to them.”

The actual point of dispute is that the early generations and the imams believed that Allah possesses the attributes with which He described Himself and His Messenger described Him: knowledge, power, hearing, sight, two hands, a face, and other attributes. The Jahmiyyah, including the Mu‘tazilah and others, denied this.

Then, when the theologians who affirmed the attributes debated the Mu‘tazilah, they disagreed