and al-Ash‘arī, and others who affirmed the divine attributes. They demonstrated the unsoundness of the claim that the Quran is created and of their other claims. Some of them curbed the power of the Mu‘tazilah and Jahmiyyah sufficiently to bring the hallmarks of the Sunnah to prominence: affirming that the Quran is Allah’s uncreated speech, that Allah will be seen in the Hereafter, and affirming the divine attributes, divine decree, and the other foundations of the Sunnah.

However, the “rational principle” upon which Ibn Kullāb based his position concerning Allah’s speech and attributes was precisely the same principle as that of the Jahmiyyah and Mu‘tazilah. When these scholars discussed Allah’s creation of the heavens, the earth, and other created things, they relied entirely upon the principle introduced by the Jahmiyyah and their followers. Thus, they presented the position of the adherents of the religion as those men had reported it, and supported it using those men’s argument.

The “ordeal of Imam Ahmad” took place in 220 AH. In that year, the esotericist Qarmatians began openly proclaiming their doctrine, for the philosophers’ books had been translated into Arabic and people had become familiar with their views. When the philosophers saw that the doctrine attributed to the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his household was this doctrine espoused by the Jahmī speculative theologians and their followers, and saw that this doctrine was rationally unsound, they aspired to alter the religion. Some of them openly denied the Creator and professed outright unbelief. They fought the Muslims and seized the Black Stone, as did the Qarmatians of Bahrain. Before them, Bābak al-Khurramī had perpetrated his well-known acts against the Muslims. Judge Abū Bakr ibn al-Bāqillānī and others have described the exposure of the secrets of