on declaring them outside the fold of Islam. Their isolation grew oppressive, their humiliation dragged on, and they could devise no escape except to profess opposition to their predecessors and refute them, recasting their discourse to make it more readily understood and more effective among the masses than their predecessors’ foundational teachings. In this way they hoped to gain acceptance and escape the disgrace of public condemnation.

Thus they produced contrivances that appear to the foolish as something other than what they conceal. Yet a discerning observer examines their roots and sees the pith of philosophy clothed in the bark of the Sunnah, and the tenets of the Jahmiyyah invested with the titles of wisdom. They refute the Jews’ statement:

“The hand of Allah is chained.” [al-Mā’idah 64]

But they deny both the fetter and the hand, leaving themselves in a worse position than the Jews. For Allah Most High affirmed the attribute and denied the defect, whereas the Jews affirmed both the attribute and the defect. These people, however, denied the attribute just as they denied the defect. They also refute the Christians’ assertions concerning Jesus and his mother