in some texts of the Book and the Sunnah but not others; for religious innovations derive from disbelief.

As for “attributes,” an example is the disagreement between the Jews and Christians concerning the Messiah. The former said that he was a created servant, but denied his prophethood and impugned his lineage. The latter acknowledged his prophethood and his mission as a messenger, but said that he was Allah. Thus, the two groups differed over his attributes, each describing him with a mixture of truth and falsehood.

Another example is the “Sabian philosophers,” whose description of Allah’s revelation to His messengers contains both truth and falsehood. They might say: “The messengers must be obeyed, and what they brought may be called the speech of Allah. However, it was only sent down to their hearts from the spirit, which is the active intellect in the lowest heaven, not from Allah Himself. What descends upon the hearts of others is likewise of the same kind. It is not truly the speech of Allah; rather, it is in reality the speech of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and is called the speech of Allah only figuratively.”

These people, too, accept only part and make distinctions, since they affirm some attributes of what Allah has revealed and some attributes of His messengers, but not others. The attributes they disbelieve in may be more numerous than those they believe in, just as what the Jews reject of Scripture is more extensive and weightier than what they accept. Yet these people are greater in disbelief than the Jews in one respect, though the Jews are greater in disbelief than they are in another.