Jahm, along with extremists among the Qarāmitah and the philosophers, went further along these lines, saying:

“He has no name such as ‘thing,’ ‘living,’ ‘knowing,’ or the like. For if He had any such name, He would necessarily possess the quality it signifies, such as life or knowledge. A derived term can apply truly only if the meaning from which it is derived also applies. This would entail attributes subsisting in Him, which is impossible. Moreover, if He were given these names, they are names also given to others, whereas Allah is far above resembling anything else.”

Others went still further in their extremism, saying:

“He is to be designated neither affirmatively nor negatively. One must not say that He is existent or non-existent, living or non-living. For affirmation likens Him to existing things, while negation likens Him to non-existent things. All of this amounts to likening Him to something else.”

When these Jahmīs appeared, the early generations and the imams condemned and refuted their doctrine, meeting it with the religious condemnation it deserved. It remained obscure until it emerged openly and the Jahmīs grew powerful toward the end of the “first century” and the beginning of the “second,” during the reigns of al-Rashīd’s sons. They subjected people to the well-known inquisition, in which they called upon them to profess that the Quran was created, along with the implications of that position, such as denying that Allah will be seen and denying His attributes. This was based on the premise that the Quran is an accident: if it subsisted in Allah’s essence, accidents would subsist in Him, which would entail likening Him to His creation and ascribing corporeality to Him.

Alongside the Jahmīs, there arose people who likened Allah, exalted is He, to His creation, treating His attributes as being of the same kind as the attributes of created beings. The early generations and the imams therefore condemned both the Jahmīs who denied the divine attributes and those who likened Allah to His creation and made Him resemble it.

The leader of the Muʿtazilah, Abū al-Hudhayl al-ʿAllāf, and others like him who denied the attributes said: “This entails His being a body, whereas Allah, exalted is He, is far above that.”

The others said:

“Rather, He is a body, and a body