declared them unbelievers or misguided, and he recognizes that this position prevalent among these later scholars is the doctrine of al-Marīsī, right guidance becomes clear to whomever Allah wills to guide. There is no power nor strength except through Allah.

A fatwa does not allow for an extensive treatment of this subject. I merely point to its starting points; an intelligent person will pursue the matter and examine it. The statements of the early generations on this subject are found in many books, only a few of which we can mention here: The Book of Traditions by al-Lālakā’ī; The Clarification by Ibn Battah; The Sunnah by Abū Dharr al-Harawī; The Fundamentals by Abū ‘Amr al-Talamankī; the statements of Abū ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-Barr; and The Names and Attributes by al-Bayhaqī. Earlier works include The Sunnah by al-Tabarānī, by Abū al-Shaykh al-Asbahānī, and by Abū ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mandah and Abū Ahmad al-‘Assāl, the latter two both of Asbahān.

Earlier still are The Sunnah by al-Khallāl; Monotheism by Ibn Khuzaymah; the statements of Abū al-‘Abbās ibn Surayj; and refutations of the Jahmiyya by a number of scholars, such as al-Bukhārī and his teacher, ‘Abd Allāh ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Ju‘fī. Before these are The Sunnah by ‘Abd Allāh ibn Ahmad; The Sunnah by Abū Bakr ibn al-Athram; The Sunnah by Hanbal, al-Marwazī, Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī, and Ibn Abī Shaybah; The Sunnah by Abū Bakr ibn Abī ‘Āsim; The Creation of the Acts of the Servants by al-Bukhārī; and Refutation of the Jahmiyya by ‘Uthmān ibn Sa‘īd al-Dārimī and others. There are also the statements of Abū al-‘Abbās ‘Abd al-‘Azīz al-Makkī, author of al-Haydah, in refutation of the Jahmiyya; the statements of Nu‘aym ibn Hammād al-Khuzā‘ī and others; and the statements of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal