the Mu'tazilah on divine decree and the threat of punishment. For this reason, some who affiliate themselves with the Sunnah, hadith, and adherence to the early Muslims followed Jahm’s approach. Likewise, concerning “faith and the threat of punishment,” they followed the approach of the extremist Murji'ah: Jahm and his followers.

Jahm became known for “two kinds” of innovation. One concerned (the divine names and attributes), in which he went to extremes in negation. The Bātiniyyah, the philosophers, and others agreed with him on this, as did the Mu'tazilah regarding the attributes, though not the names. The Kullābiyyah, together with those jurists and hadith scholars who agreed with them, followed him in denying the attributes connected with Allah’s will. The Karrāmiyyah and others agreed with him on the underlying principle: that an infinite succession cannot have continued eternally, and that He cannot have always spoken whenever He willed and acted whenever He willed, since events without a beginning are impossible. On the basis of this principle—denying the existence of an endless succession in the future—he maintained that Paradise and Hell would perish. Abū al-Hudhayl, the leading scholar of the Mu'tazilah, agreed with him on this, but held that movements would come to an end.

Thus, regarding the attributes, the Mu'tazilah are the effeminates of the Jahmiyyah. As for the Kullābiyyah regarding the attributes . . . (1) (*), and likewise the Ash'ariyyah. But, as Abū Ismā'īl al-Ansārī said:

“The Ash'ariyyah—the females—are the effeminates of the Mu'tazilah.”

Some people say, “The Mu'tazilah are the effeminates of the philosophers,” because they do not know that Jahm preceded them in adopting this principle, or because they are their effeminates in certain respects. Al-Shahrastānī states that they derived what they adopted from the philosophers, because he considers only the debates of his Ash'ari companions with them. This contrasts with the leading scholars of the Sunnah, whose debates were with the Jahmiyyah, who were known among