and that of the Murji’a. The Companions and Followers (1) denounced this, including Abd Allāh ibn Umar, Abd Allāh ibn Abbās, Jābir ibn Abd Allāh, and Wāthila ibn al-Asqa (2).
Then, toward the end of the Followers’ era, in the early second century (3), the innovation of the Jahmites, who denied the divine attributes, arose. The first to proclaim this (4) was al-Ja‘d ibn Dirham. Khālid ibn Abd Allāh al-Qasrī pursued him and sacrificed him at Wāsit. Addressing the people on the Day of Sacrifice, he said:
“O people, offer your sacrifices—may Allah accept them from you—for I am going to sacrifice al-Ja‘d ibn Dirham. He claims that Allah Most High did not take Abraham as an intimate friend and did not speak directly to Moses. Allah is supremely exalted above what al-Ja‘d says.”
He then descended and slaughtered him (5).
Thereafter, Jahm ibn Safwān openly championed this doctrine, which the Mu‘tazilites subsequently adopted. They were the first people known in Islam to argue for the temporal origination of—
(1) A and B read: “… the era of the Companions and those who followed them in righteousness …,” and so forth.
(2) N and M read: “Wāthila ibn al-Asqa,” which is incorrect. Al-Nawawī states in *Tahdhīb al-Asmā wa-al-Lughāt*, section 1, vol. [0–9], p. [0–9]43: “He died in Damascus in 85 or 86 AH.”
(3) N and M read: “the third,” which is incorrect.
(4) N reads: “This became manifest from him”; A reads: “This became manifest.”
(5) Al-Jad ibn Dirham was one of the *mawālī* (clients) and served as tutor to Marwān ibn Muhammad, the last Umayyad caliph. He openly espoused the doctrine that the Quran was created after learning it—as Ibn Nubāta reports—from Abān ibn Samaan, who in turn had learned it from Tālūt ibn Asam, the Jew who bewitched the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Hishām ibn Abd al-Malik ordered Khālid ibn Abd Allāh al-Qasrī, his governor of Kufa, to execute al-Jad for this and for his views concerning *qadar* (divine decree). See Jamāl al-Dīn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Nubāta, *Sarh al-Uyūn: Sharh Risālat Ibn Zaydūn*, ed. Muhammad Abū al-Fadl Ibrāhīm, pp. [0–9]93–294 (Cairo, 1383/1964); Jamāl al-Dīn al-Qāsimī, *Tārīkh al-Jahmiyya wa-al-Mutazila*, pp. 27–28 (Cairo, 1331); *Lisān al-Mīzān*, 2/105; *Mīzān al-Itidāl*, 1/185; Ibn al-Athīr, *al-Kāmil*, 5/160; *al-A‘lām*, 2/114.