[any] other designations, they are used only for identification—like the names of peoples and tribes—and Sharia rulings must not be made contingent [upon them]. Rather, all this is the practice of those given to personal desires, division, and discord, who divided their religion and became sects. Such is the case with those who base allegiance and enmity on the names of tribes, countries, or schools followed in Islam—such as the Hanafī, Mālikī, Shāfi‘ī, and Hanbalī schools—or on shaykhs and the like.

Accordingly, the designation “those who liken Allah to creation” does not occur as a term of condemnation in the Quran, the Sunnah, or the words of any of the Companions or Successors. However, some of the early generations, such as ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī, Yazīd ibn Hārūn, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ishāq ibn Rāhawayh, Nu‘aym ibn Hammād, and others, condemned those who liken Allah to creation. They explained that those whom they condemned were people who likened Allah’s attributes to the attributes of His creation. Their condemnation was therefore directed at what contradicted the Quran and Sunnah in these people’s statements, since they asserted such a likeness. For the term tashbīh (likening) is ambiguous, admits several meanings, and can be misleading, unlike the language of tamthīl (likeness), which the Quran employs while denying that Allah, Almighty and Majestic, has any such likeness.