and, with reference to the imams of the legal schools, Mālikiyyah, Hanafiyyah, Shāfiʿiyyah and Hanbaliyyah. At other times, a group is named after its beliefs or practices, as with the Rāfidah, Khawārij, Qadariyyah, Muʿtazilah and others. The term “Hashwiyyah” derives from neither of these bases.

As for his statement, “Some hold that it originated in time, consisting of sounds and letters—these are the Jahmiyyah,” these are the words of someone unfamiliar with people’s doctrines.

The Jahmiyyah say: “Allah does not speak and has no speech; He merely created something that was then given expression.” Some of them say that He speaks through speech He creates in something other than Himself. This is the position of the Muʿtazilah.

The Karrāmiyyah, however, say: “The Quran is Allah’s speech, uncreated, and He speaks it with letters and sounds.” Yet they also say that it originated in time and subsists in Him. They are not Jahmiyyah; rather, they refute them most vigorously, and their differences with them are greater than those of the Ashʿariyyah. Nevertheless, they say: “The Quran originated in time within Allah’s essence.”

Some of these maintain that all of Allah’s speech originated in time, while others do not. This view is known to have been held by Abū Muʿādh al-Tūmanī, Zuhayr al-Bābī and Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī al-Asbahānī. Indeed, it is also reported from al-Bukhārī, the author of the Sahīh, and others, as well as numerous groups. Thus, not everyone who says that it originated in time is a Jahmī or says that it is created.