and sets aside the negative beliefs he has been taught, the beliefs held by those who revere them and their proponents, and his own conviction that they have rigorously established these rational concepts. For these beliefs accepted on authority are what turn hearts away from their innate disposition. As the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Every child is born upon the natural disposition, and his parents make him a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian.”

Moreover, none of these negative assertions was ever made by any leading scholar of the Muslims, nor does the Quran or Sunnah express them. Among the various groups of speculative theologians, so many of their most accomplished members have rejected them that only Allah can count them.

If it is said, “Independence from a substrate is a negative attribute. Thus, if subsisting in itself is a negative attribute, it does not indicate an affirmative meaning, namely, its being