As for labels whose bearers are neither condemned nor praised by Islamic law, two matters must be established: first, what these labels mean; and second, that those so labelled are blameworthy under Islamic law. The person being criticized may challenge both points, saying: “We do not concede that the people you mean fall under these labels that you condemn, when no evidence from revelation establishes that they warrant condemnation. Even if they do fall under them, we do not concede that everyone to whom these labels apply is blameworthy under Islamic law.”
Second: This group, of whom you said, “They do not shy away from hashw, likening Allah to His creation, and corporealism,” either includes those who affirm the attributes attested by the Quran and the Sunnah, or it does not. If you include them, you are condemning everyone who affirms these attributes. Yet it is well known that this is the position of the early generations generally and of the leading scholars of the religion. Indeed, even the leading scholars of speculative theology affirm these scripturally attested attributes in general, although their approaches differ. These include Abū Saʿīd ibn Kullāb, Abū al-Hasan al-Ashʿarī, and the leading scholars among his followers, such as Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mujāhid, Abū al-Hasan al-Bāhilī, Judge Abū Bakr ibn al-Bāqillānī, Abū Ishāq al-Isfarāyīnī, Abū Bakr ibn Fūrak, Abū Muhammad ibn al-Labbān, Abū ʿAlī ibn Shādhān, Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī, Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī, and others. For every one of these scholars