As for those who spoke ill of the righteous predecessors, their aim was to discredit the transmitters, for discrediting the transmitters invalidates what they transmitted. Thus, they sought to invalidate the revealed law that those predecessors had transmitted. They professed attachment to ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib (may Allah be pleased with him) merely as a weapon.

It is reported that Abū al-Rabī‘ al-Zahrānī said, “There was among us a man belonging to these Jahmiyyah