did they maintain that a body is never free of temporal events, since, in their view, the Beginningless One was a beginningless body free of temporal events. It has been said that the first person in Islam to assert that the Beginningless One is a body was Hishām ibn al-Hakam, just as the first to openly deny in Islam that He is a body was al-Jahm ibn Safwān.

The statements of the early generations and the imams condemning the Jahmiyyah are numerous and well known, for the malady of denying the divine attributes is worse than that of corporealism. The early generations specifically condemned those who likened Allah to creation. Thus, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal—may Allah be pleased with him—Ishāq ibn Rāhawayh, and others said: “Those who liken Allah to creation are those who say: ‘Sight like my sight, a hand like my hand, and a foot like my foot.’”

Ibn Kullāb and his followers affirmed the attributes that are not connected with His will and power, but denied those that are connected with His will and power. They argued: “These attributes have a beginning. If temporal events subsisted in Him, He would have a beginning, because whatever can receive something cannot be devoid of both it and its opposite. Thus, if He could receive any of these temporal events, He could not be devoid of both it and its opposite. He would therefore never be free of temporal events and would consequently have a beginning.”

“Muhammad ibn Karrām” lived after Ibn Kullāb, in the time of Muslim ibn al-Hajjāj. He affirmed that Allah possesses attributes dependent on His choice and speaks by His will and power. In his view, however, it was impossible that He should have been speaking by His will and power from eternity, because a beginningless series of temporal events was impossible. He therefore did not adopt the position of the early generations that He has always spoken whenever He wills. Rather, he said that He began to speak by His will and power, just as He began to act by His will and power, after not having done so.

According to the well-known account of his position, he and his followers said: