even if it had any reality outside the mind, would not constitute perfection for the soul except through knowledge of its Creator, glorified and exalted is He. These Jahmiyyah are among the most extreme religious innovators. Indeed, several scholars have placed them outside the seventy-two sects, as is reported from ‘Abdullāh ibn al-Mubārak and Yūsuf ibn Asbāt. This is also the view of a group of later followers of Ahmad and others. Several leading scholars, including Wakī‘ ibn al-Jarrāh, Ahmad ibn Hanbal and others, have declared anyone who holds this view an unbeliever.

They said: “This would entail that Iblīs, Pharaoh and the Jews who recognize him as they recognize their own sons are believers.”

The Jahmiyyah’s position is therefore better than that of these men, for what the Jahmiyyah mention is the foundation upon which souls attain perfection. Yet they failed to combine the soul’s knowledge with its will, which is the source of its practical faculty. They located perfection in knowledge alone, even if neither speech nor action bears it out, and even if it is unaccompanied by reverent fear, love, veneration or any of the other foundations and necessary accompaniments of faith. These men, however, have strayed as far as possible from perfection. Our purpose here is solely to discuss their demonstration; we have mentioned only some of the consequences of their unsound principles.

Know that exposing the falsehood and logical flaws in their statements does not entail that they will be among the wretched in the Hereafter, unless Allah sent them a messenger whom they did not follow. Rather, it makes clear that anyone to whom the messengers brought the truth, but who turned away from their path to follow the path of these men, will be among the wretched in the Hereafter.