the subject was therefore singled out for separate study, set apart as an independent section, and a great many books were written about it. Imam Ahmad composed his famous refutation of the Jahmiyyah; his son ʿAbd Allah authored Kitab al-Sunnah (The Book of the Sunnah); ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Kinani wrote al-Haydah (The Conclusive Proof) in response to Bishr al-Marrisi; Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Marwazi compiled Kitab al-Sunnah; ʿUthman ibn Saʿid produced al-Radd ʿala Bishr al-Marrisi (A Rebuttal of Bishr al-Marrisi); the “Imam of the Imams,” Muhammad ibn Khuzaymah, authored Kitab al-Tawḥīd (The Book of Monotheism); and others—such as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and his disciple Ibn al-Qayyim—penned further rebuttals against those people and all who later followed their path. So praise and gratitude belong to Allah for clarifying the truth and crushing falsehood.

The first individuals known to have rejected the Divine attributes were certain Arab idolaters about whom Allah revealed: “Thus We have sent you to a community before which other nations have passed, so that you may recite to them what We have revealed to you—yet they disbelieve in the Most Merciful.” 1

The reason for this verse’s revelation is that, when Quraysh heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ mention “the Most Merciful,” they denied the name; so Allah sent down concerning them: “…yet they disbelieve in the Most Merciful.”

Ibn Jarir reported that this occurred during the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, when the scribe wrote, “In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate,” and Quraysh objected, saying, “As for ‘the Most Merciful,’ we do not recognize it.”

He also narrated from Ibn ʿAbbas that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, while in prostration, would supplicate, “Ya Rahman, Ya Rahim!” (O Most Merciful, O Most Compassionate!). The polytheists remarked, “He claims to call upon one deity, yet he calls upon two!” Thereupon Allah revealed: “Say, ‘Invoke Allah or invoke the Most Merciful; whichever you invoke, His are the Most Beautiful Names.’” 2 He, Exalted is He, also said in Surah al-Furqan: “When it is said to them, ‘Prostrate to the Most Merciful,’ they say, ‘And what is the Most Merciful?’” 3

These people, then, are the forebears of the Jahmiyyah and the Ashʿarīs in denying Allah’s names and attributes—and what an evil ancestor for an evil descendant! As Allah the Most High says: “Will you take him and his offspring as allies instead of Me, while they are enemies to you? Wretched is the exchange for the wrongdoers.” 4