by a group of Jahmīs from among the Mu‘tazilīs and others. Many leading Jahmīs among the Mu‘tazilīs and others, however, reject these hadiths as false, including the aforementioned hadiths about seeing Allah and similar reports. They regard accepting them as true while subjecting them to such interpretations as mere manipulation and denial of what is self-evident.

Undoubtedly, in rejecting these interpretations in view of the hadiths’ explicit wording, they are nearer the truth than those who interpret them in this way. Yet those who accept the hadiths as true rather than rejecting them are nearer the truth than those who deny them. They continually divide innovation between themselves: each group is inferior to the other in one respect. There are parallels to this in the questions of the Quran, seeing Allah, the divine attributes, and other matters, as we have pointed out in part in this book.

We shall discuss the substantiation of both, Allah Most High willing, when we reach al-Rāzī’s discussion of the reports. In reality, al-Rāzī combines both innovations: he follows the truth neither regarding their chains of transmission nor regarding what they indicate; rather,