even if revelation had not affirmed it, nor reason established it. How, then, can such an argument be used to deny what both revelation and reason establish? It therefore becomes clear that anyone who denies any of the attributes—on the grounds that affirming them entails likening Allah to creation and attributing corporeality to Him—is subject to the very charge he levels against others. The rebuttal thus applies equally to both sides. Moreover, if this consequence follows on every possible assumption, then using it to deny that which entails it is clearly invalid, since that which entails it exists and cannot possibly be denied.
For this reason, such reasoning is not found in the words of any of the early generations of this Ummah or its leading scholars. Rather, it was introduced by the Jahmiyyah and the Muʿtazilah, and many people adopted it from them. A person denies of the Lord what must indeed be denied of Him, such as imperfections from which He must be declared free: ignorance, inability, need, and the like. Declaring Him free of these is correct. Yet this person argues that they must be denied because they entail attributing corporeality to Allah and likening Him to creation. He is then challenged with what he himself affirms, and so falls into contradiction.
Through this opening, the heretical esotericists gained influence among Muslims, until they turned vast numbers away from Islam. They began saying to anyone who denied something of the Lord—such as someone who denied some or all of His attributes, or His most beautiful names—“Did you not deny this to avoid likening Allah to creation and attributing corporeality to Him?”
He replies, “Yes.”
They then say, “But this same consequence follows from what you affirm.”
He thus finds himself obliged to agree with them in denying one thing after another, until he reaches the point where he neither knows Allah in his heart, nor remembers Him with his tongue, nor worships Him, nor calls upon Him—even if he does not categorically affirm His nonexistence, but instead divests himself of faith in Him. The inconsistency of these people is already known.