this particular point. Whoever sets out to establish what he has stated by means of disputed premises (1) may be answered by proceeding to refute and invalidate them in the same manner; every occasion calls for its own discourse.

These matters have been discussed at length elsewhere. It was shown there that the attributes affirmed by the Book and the Sunnah regarding (2) Allah’s being above His creation—glorified and exalted is He—and other matters are precisely what the deniers of the attributes reject. Likewise, what they assert (3) is stated by neither the Book of Allah nor the Sunnah of His Messenger (4); nor did any messenger, Companion, or Follower ever hold their view, and no rational proof establishes it (5) either. Rather, clear rational evidence accords with sound scriptural evidence. These people, however, went astray because of ambiguous terminology they coined and rational concepts in which they failed to distinguish the true from the false.

All innovations—such as those of the Kharijites, the Shia, the Murji'a, and the Qadariyya—have some apparent basis in the texts of the prophets. This is unlike the innovations (6) of the Jahmiyya who deny the attributes, for they have no scriptural proof whatsoever for them. Hence, theirs were the last innovations to arise in Islam. When they arose, the Salaf and the imams (7) (categorically declared) their adherents to be unbelievers, knowing that their doctrine amounted, in reality, to negating the Creator. This is why those who fully develop their doctrine ultimately arrive at a view (8) like Pharaoh’s—the foremost of the negators. Indeed, they even defend and venerate him.