captivity. Anyone who did not agree with them that the Quran was created, or with the other innovations that followed from this, they killed, imprisoned, beat, or denied a stipend from the public treasury. They would not appoint him to any public office, accept his testimony, or ransom him from the disbelievers.

They would say, “This man likens Allah to His creation; this man attributes a body to Him,” because he said that Allah would be seen in the Hereafter, that the Quran was the speech of Allah, uncreated, that Allah rose over the Throne, and similar things. This inquisition against the Muslims continued for ten-odd years, during the latter part of al-Ma’mūn’s caliphate and the caliphates of his brother al-Mu‘tasim and al-Wāthiq ibn al-Mu‘tasim. Then Allah Most High lifted this affliction from the community during the reign of al-Mutawakkil ‘alā Allāh, whose descendants Allah made to constitute most of the Abbasid caliphs, rather than the descendants of those who had subjected Ahl al-Sunnah to the inquisition. Al-Mutawakkil ordered that the inquisition be ended, that the Book and the Sunnah be openly proclaimed, and that the authentic reports from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the Companions, and the Successors affirming the divine attributes and rejecting their denial be transmitted.

Those Jahmiyyah who denied the divine attributes had gone so far in altering the religion that they would write on the coverings of the Kaaba, “There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Almighty, the All-Wise,” rather than saying, “And He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.” They would also test people with the words of Allah Most High:

“There is nothing like unto Him.”

If they continued, “And He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing,” they would rebuke them.

The position of the early generations of this community and its imams is that Allah is to be described as He has described Himself and as His Messenger has described Him, without distortion or denial, and without