“The Jahmiyyah are disbelievers and therefore are not included among the seventy-two sects, just as the hypocrites who conceal disbelief while outwardly professing Islam are not included among them. These are the covert unbelievers.”

Others among Ahmad’s followers and other scholars said:

“Rather, the Jahmiyyah are included among the seventy-two sects.”

They identified five foundational groups of religious innovation. According to this view, each of the “five groups of innovators” comprises twelve sects, whereas according to the first view, each of the “four groups of innovators” comprises eighteen sects.

This rests upon another fundamental issue: “declaring proponents of religious innovation disbelievers.” Whoever excludes the Jahmiyyah from these sects does not declare them disbelievers, for he does not declare the other proponents of religious innovation disbelievers. Rather, he regards them as subject to the threatened punishment, like the wicked and the disobedient. The statement, “They are in the Fire,” is understood like the warnings concerning other sins, such as consuming an orphan’s property. As Allah Most High says:

“Indeed, those who devour the property of orphans unjustly are only consuming fire into their bellies.”

Those who include them among these sects hold two views. Some declare them all disbelievers. This was asserted only by certain later scholars affiliated with the imams or the speculative theologians. The early generations and the imams, however, did not dispute that the “Murjiʾah,” the “Shīʿah” who regard ʿAlī as superior to Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, and similar groups were not to be declared disbelievers. Ahmad’s recorded statements consistently affirm that these people are not to be declared disbelievers, although some of his followers reported disagreement concerning the declaration of all proponents of religious innovation—these groups and others—as disbelievers