and will, among other matters, views that do not include the position indicated by the Quran and Sunnah, although some come closer to it.

Before him was Abū al-Hasan, whose book on disagreements among Muslims is among the most comprehensive works. In it, he exhaustively surveyed the views of the people of innovation. Yet when he presented the position of the people of Sunnah and hadith, he gave only a general account, without elaboration. He also reworked parts of it, presenting what he himself believed to be their position without this having been transmitted from any of them.

The position closest to his own is that of Ibn Kullāb. Ibn Kullāb’s position, however, is mingled with that of the Jahmiyyah: it combines the position of the people of Sunnah with that of the Jahmiyyah. The same applies to al-Ashʿarī’s position on the divine attributes. As for divine decree and faith, his position is that of Jahm.

As for the position he reported from the people of Sunnah and hadith, concerning which he said, “We affirm everything we have mentioned of their position, and we adopt it,” this comes closest to the truth among the positions he mentioned. Some of it he reported accurately from them; other parts he reworked and mixed with views of Jahm concerning the divine attributes and divine decree, since he himself believed those principles to be sound. He was eager to defend the people of Sunnah and hadith and agree with them, so he sought to