The twelfth point: Given the command to recite it repeatedly, both within and outside prayer, the emphasis on its great merit, and the widespread knowledge of this among the general public and the learned alike, is it conceivable that its apparent meaning should be misguidance, absurdity, and disbelief, yet none of the early generations of the Muslim community should point this out when discussing Allah’s oneness and the attributes of the Lord who is worshipped? Glorified and exalted is He, far above what the wrongdoers say.

The thirteenth point: The rational argument he mentions did not appear in the Muslim community until after the age of the Companions and the senior Successors—indeed, their leading scholars—had passed, namely, from the time of Bishr al-Marīsī. When he made his doctrine public, the leading scholars of Islam declared him a disbeliever. Those who declared him a disbeliever included Sufyān ibn Uyaynah, Abd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, Abbād ibn al-Awwām, Alī ibn Āsim, and Yahyā ibn