He said: The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—has thus told us that Allah conceals His remembrance of the servant within Himself when the servant remembers Him privately, and makes it public when the servant remembers Him publicly. A distinction is thus made between knowledge of what is outward and what is inward, and of what is public and what is concealed.

When Allah’s words and the words of the two Messengers, Jesus and Muhammad—may Allah bless them both and grant them peace—are in agreement, who would pay any heed to the words of Jahm, al-Marīsī, and their followers? Allah’s Self is Allah Himself, and the Self encompasses all the attributes. If the Self is denied, the attributes are denied; and if the attributes are denied, nothing remains.

He said: Muhammad ibn Kathīr also narrated to us: Sufyān narrated to us, from Zayd ibn Jubayr, who said: I heard Abū al-Bakhtarī say: “Let no one say