The Methodology of the Jahmiyyah and Their Followers Concerning Allah’s Names and Attributes

It is obligatory for every Muslim to affirm Allah’s names and attributes in the manner that befits His majesty and greatness, exactly as they have come in the Book and the Sunnah. This forms an integral part of faith in Allah, and it is the creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamāʿah, who take the Qur’an and the Sunnah of His Messenger as their definitive proof and reference. The Jahmiyyah, however, together with their disciples among the Muʿtazilah and the Ashʿarites, do the opposite: they deny what Allah has affirmed for Himself of names and attributes—or they deny some and affirm others according to their own whims. Their ultimate reference point is what their limited intellects conclude, or what the imams of misguidance have dictated to them. How vast the difference between one who bases his evidence on the Book and the Sunnah and one who bases it on the scraps of human speculation and the refuse of exhausted minds. One of them has even versified their rule of thumb:

“Whenever a text seems to imply resemblance,
Interpret it away, consign it—or claim transcendence.”

Such, then, is their handling of the scriptural texts on Allah’s names and attributes. Their taʾwīl (figurative reinterpretation) diverts these passages from the exalted meanings they plainly convey to the barren notions and false opinions their minds devise. Whatever their intellects cannot cope with, they consign (tafwīḍ), while inwardly believing the opposite of what the text indicates. Glory be to You, my Lord—how sublime is Your rank, and how forbearing You are toward Your servants! They have stripped from You the attributes of perfection and the qualities of majesty that You affirmed for Yourself; they have contradicted Your Book and preferred the dictates of their own minds to what You revealed therein. Thus they denied Your names and attributes, and they denied the proof and guidance of Your Book.

Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) said about such people: “Whoever imagines that Allah has spoken of Himself, His attributes, and His actions in words whose outward sense is false, assimilation, and likeness—while withholding the truth and failing to state it—imagines further that He merely hinted at it through distant symbols and wrapped-up allusions without stating it plainly; that He continually spoke in terms that entail false assimilation and likeness, and yet wanted His creation to wear out their minds, their energies, and their thoughts in distorting …”