and Ishāq ibn Rāhawayh, Yahyā ibn Sa‘īd, Yahyā ibn Yahyā al-Naysābūrī, and their peers. Earlier still are the statements of ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak and his peers, and much else besides.

We have scriptural and rational proofs that there is not enough room to mention here. I know that the speculative theologians who deny the divine attributes have objections to raise, but these cannot be set out in a fatwa. For anyone who examines them and wishes to clarify the objections they have presented, this is easily done.

If, then, this doctrine—the doctrine of denying the divine attributes and reinterpreting the scriptural texts—was originally taken from the pupils of polytheists, Sabians, and Jews, how can a believer—indeed, any rational person—feel content to follow the path of those who have incurred Allah’s anger or gone astray, while abandoning the path of those whom Allah has blessed: the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous?