faith nothing more than knowledge in the heart. He also held that human beings neither act nor possess any power. These are two matters in which the Mu‘tazilah went to extremes in opposing him. Al-Ash‘arī, however, agreed with his basic position, though he might dispute with him over wording. Jahm affirms none of the divine attributes, neither will nor anything else. Thus, when he says that Allah loves acts of obedience and hates sins, he means reward and punishment. Al-Ash‘arī, by contrast, affirms attributes such as will, and therefore had to address whether will is identical with love.

He said: “Allah loves sins and is pleased with them, just as He wills them.” Abū al-Ma‘ālī mentioned that he was the first to say this. Before him, the people of the Sunnah held that Allah does not love sins. This view spread among many Sufis, who agreed with Jahm on questions of human actions and divine decree while opposing him concerning the attributes. One example is Abū Ismā‘īl al-Ansārī, author of Censure of Speculative Theology. He is among those most vehement in condemning the Jahmiyyah for denying the attributes, and he wrote a book declaring the Jahmiyyah unbelievers. He also vehemently condemns the Ash‘arīs, even though they are among the closest of these groups to the Sunnah; at times, he would even curse them.

Someone asked him in the presence of Nizām al-Mulk, “Do you curse the Ash‘arīs?” He replied, “I curse whoever says there is no god in the heavens, no Quran in the physical copy, and no prophet in the grave.” He then rose and left him in anger.

Despite this, on the question of willing all that occurs and creating human actions, he goes further than the Ash‘arīs: he affirms neither causation nor wisdom. Rather, he says that the spiritual knower’s contemplation of the decree leaves him unable to approve of a good deed or disapprove of an evil one. By “decree,” he means the divine will, because, in his view, the spiritual knower is someone who reaches the station of fanā’ (annihilation), and good and evil deeds differ in how they affect the servant