And those among them who deny the divine attributes hold that the Lord has only negative or relational attributes, or attributes combining the two. These were the people to whom Abraham, the intimate friend of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was sent. Al-Jaʿd would therefore have acquired these ideas from the Sabian philosophers. Likewise, Abū Nasr al-Fārābī went to Harrān and completed his study of philosophy under the Sabian philosophers. Jahm also acquired these ideas—as reported by Imam Ahmad and others—when he debated the “Sumaniyya,” a group of Indian philosophers who deny all knowledge other than sensory knowledge. Thus, Jahm’s chains of transmission lead back to the Jews, the Sabians, and the polytheists. The misguided philosophers belong either to the Sabians or to the polytheists.

Then, when Roman and Greek books were translated into Arabic around the second century AH, the affliction intensified, in addition to what Satan had instilled in the hearts of the misguided from the outset—of the same kind as what he had instilled in the hearts of their counterparts.

Around the third century AH, this doctrine, which the early generations called the doctrine of the Jahmiyya, spread through Bishr ibn Ghiyāth al-Marīsī and his contemporaries. The leading scholars—including Mālik, Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna, Ibn al-Mubārak, Abū Yūsuf, al-Shāfiʿī, Ahmad, Ishāq, al-Fudayl ibn ʿIyād, Bishr al-Hāfī, and others—made numerous statements condemning them and declaring them misguided.