unless the conditions are met and the impediments are absent. This is illustrated by the fact that Imam Ahmad and the imams generally who made these sweeping statements did not declare most of those who uttered these very words to be disbelievers as individuals.

Imam Ahmad, for example, dealt directly with the “Jahmiyyah,” who called upon him to affirm that the Quran was created and to deny the divine attributes. They subjected him and the other scholars of his time to an inquisition. They persecuted believing men and women who did not agree with their Jahmī doctrines by beating, imprisoning and killing them, dismissing them from office, cutting off their stipends, rejecting their testimony, and failing to secure their release from enemy captivity.

Indeed, many of those in authority at that time—governors, judges and others—were Jahmīs. They declared anyone who was not a Jahmī and did not agree with their denial of the divine attributes, such as the assertion that the Quran was created, to be a disbeliever. They applied to him the rulings they applied to a disbeliever: they would not appoint him to office, ransom him from the enemy, give him anything from the public treasury, or accept his testimony, legal opinions or transmitted reports. They tested people when appointing them to office, accepting their testimony, ransoming them from captivity, and in other circumstances. Whoever affirmed that the Quran was created, they judged to be a believer; whoever did not affirm it, they did not accord the rulings applicable to believers. Anyone who called people to doctrines other than those of the Jahmiyyah, they killed, or beat and imprisoned.

It is well known that this is among the most extreme forms of Jahmī doctrine, for calling people to a doctrine is more serious than