that sets out the three categories of monotheism with the utmost clarity.
Consider Ibn Battah’s words: “because a Jahmī claims to acknowledge both …”—meaning Allah’s lordship and His exclusive right to be worshipped. The Jahmī denied only Allah’s oneness in His names and attributes, unlike this proponent of falsehood, who rejected and denied the division of monotheism into three categories and regarded it as a form of trinitarianism within Islamic belief. Thus, even the Jahmiyyah were less misguided than he.
Consider Ibn Battah’s words: “And because we find that Allah has addressed His servants, calling upon them to accept each of these three matters and have faith in them.” This provides a most emphatic refutation of the writer’s statement: “Neither Allah in His Book nor the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—in his Sunnah stated that monotheism is divided into three categories …”
Consider his words at the beginning of the passage: “For the foundation of faith in Allah consists of three matters that His creatures must believe in order to affirm their faith in Him …” He thus stated explicitly—may Allah have mercy on him—that the three categories of monotheism constitute the foundation of faith that His creatures must believe in while affirming faith in Allah. This means that whoever fails to fulfil these three requirements has neither faith nor monotheism, for faith and monotheism consist in singling out Allah alone in these three matters. Whoever does not affirm Allah’s oneness in His lordship denies the Creator and associates partners with Allah in His lordship. Whoever does not single out Allah in worship associates partners with Him in His divinity and in the worship due to Him, like the idol-worshipping polytheists. Whoever does not affirm Allah’s oneness in His names and attributes is an unbeliever who deviates concerning Allah’s names and attributes.
How, then, can a Muslim of sound mind say that these matters have no basis or foundation and are nowhere to be found in the Book and Sunnah? O Allah, grant forgiveness!
The second passage: Imam and hadith master Abū Abd Allāh Muhammad ibn Ishāq ibn Yahyā ibn Mandah (d. 395 AH).
For in his book, “The Book of Monotheism and Knowledge of the Names of Allah—Mighty and Majestic—and His Attributes with Regard to