people’s souls to pursue their desires, so that the misguided follow them—those who follow whims and wayward passions. He thus ruled out both descriptions by showing the absence of what each necessarily entails, and explained what the devils among humans and jinn have in common.
Section
Once this principle is clear, it becomes apparent how religious innovations stem from disbelief. We therefore say:
Those among the Jews and Christians whom Allah praised were Muslims and believers: they neither altered what Allah had revealed nor disbelieved in any of it. Just as the Jews and Christians became disbelievers through altering what Allah had revealed and disbelieving in what was revealed to Muhammad, so too the Sabians became disbelievers through altering what Allah had revealed and disbelieving in what Allah revealed to Muhammad—even if they were hypocrites, just as a Jew or Christian may be a hypocrite. These are the later generations of Jews, Christians, and Sabians.
For the later Sabians did not believe that Allah has speech, that He speaks and says anything, that He sends down speech and a reminder from Himself to any human being, or that He speaks to any human being. Rather, in their view, Allah is not to be described by any positive attribute. They do not affirm that He has knowledge, love, or mercy, and they deny that