advanced by those who deny the divine attributes; Imam Aḥmad even cited it in his Refutation of the Jahmites, saying:

“The Jahmites said, when we described Allah with these attributes: ‘If you claim that Allah has always existed together with His light, His very Godhood, and His power …’—until his words: ‘So too is Allah; His is the highest similitude, and with all of His attributes He is one God.’” 1.

Then Shaykh al-Islām, may Allah have mercy on him, remarked: “What Imam Aḥmad has mentioned here contains the inner subtleties of these questions. It sets out the difference between the affirmation brought by the messengers—an affirmation wholly in accord with sound reason—and what the Jahmites assert, while also showing that His attributes are encompassed within the meaning of His names.” End of citation.

He said elsewhere, 2/568: “This is one of the matters denied by the Jahmites, the attribute-negators, and it is precisely the sort of denial that the early Muslims and the leading imams repudiated, as recorded by the Muslim authorities who authored refutations of the Jahmites, such as Imam Aḥmad—may Allah be pleased with him—in his Refutation of the Jahmites.” 2

In another edition of Minhāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah, published by Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah with annotations and the verses and hadiths verified by ʿAbd Allah Maḥmūd Muḥammad ʿUmar, 3/108, Shaykh al-Islām, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

“Imam Aḥmad said, in the preface to the book he composed while imprisoned, refuting the heretics and the Jahmites regarding the issues they contested…”