In reality, this brings them closer to the devils who command them to do such things and tell them, “The celestial body itself loves this.” In fact, the celestial bodies are subject to Allah’s command and obedient to Him; they command neither associating partners with Him nor any other sin. Rather, it is the devils who command such things. They call these devils the spirits of the celestial bodies and may even regard them as angels, whereas they are nothing but devils.

When such heresy and religious innovations spread in the eastern lands through rulers like this king and scholars like this scholar, Allah unleashed against them the disbelieving, polytheistic Turks, who destroyed this kingdom. Events befell it that hold a lesson for anyone who takes heed and recognizes the fulfilment of what Allah has proclaimed in His Book, where He says:

“We will show them Our signs on the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth.”

That is, that the Quran is true. He also says:

“I will show you My signs, so do not ask Me to hasten.”

A fuller discussion of this belongs elsewhere.

“The point here” is that the Umayyad dynasty came to an end because of this al-Ja'd, who denied the divine attributes, and other causes that brought about its decline. Towards the end of their rule, al-Jahm ibn Safwān emerged in Khurāsān—it has been said that he was originally from Tirmidh—and openly proclaimed the doctrine of the Jahmiyyah, who deny and negate the divine attributes. He was killed in one of the battles.

The leading Muslim scholars in the East knew the true nature of his doctrine better than the scholars of the Hijaz, Syria, and Iraq. Hence, more statements concerning the Jahmiyyah are found from 'Abd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak and other Muslim scholars in the East than from scholars elsewhere, even though most of the