corporealism and likening Allah to His creation of a kind not known even among the Karrāmiyya and their followers who affirm the imamate of the three [caliphs].
As for those who do not apply the term “body” to Allah—such as the leading authorities among the scholars of hadith, Quranic exegesis, Sufism, and jurisprudence, including the four imams and their followers; the renowned Muslim scholars throughout the Muslim community; and, before them, the Companions and those who followed them with excellence—not one of them says, “Allah is a body.” Likewise, however, none of the early generations or imams said, “Allah is not a body.” Rather, whoever attributed corporealism to any of them did so according to what he understood the term “body” to mean and what he regarded as necessarily entailed by something else they affirmed.
Thus, the Muʿtazila, the Jahmiyya, and similar groups who deny the divine attributes regard everyone who affirms them as a corporealist who likens Allah to His creation. Some of them even count renowned imams such as Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, Ahmad, and their followers among the corporealists and those who liken Allah to His creation, as mentioned by Abū Hātim, author of al-Zīna (Adornment) (1), and others when listing the groups that liken Allah to His creation—
(1) Abū Hātim Ahmad ibn Hamdān ibn Ahmad al-Laythī al-Warsanānī, known as Abū Hātim al-Rāzī, is mentioned by Ibn Hajar in the section on kunyās in *Lisān al-Mīzān*, where he calls him Abū Hātim al-Kashshī. He also mentions him in the section on personal names as Ahmad ibn Hamdān ibn Ahmad al-Warsāmī, Abū Hātim al-Laythī, and states: “Abū al-Hasan ibn Bābawayh mentioned him in *Tārīkh al-Rayy*, saying: ‘He was a man of distinction and letters, with expertise in language. He heard many hadiths and authored several works. He later openly espoused *ilhād* (heresy), became one of the Ismāīlī missionaries, and led a number of prominent men astray. He died in 322 AH.’” Brockelmann gives his name as follows (*Tārīkh al-Adab al-Arabī*, 3:352, trans. Dr. Abd al-Halīm al-Najjār, al-Maārif ed.): Abū Hātim Abd al-Rahmān ibn Hamdān—the initial consonant of *Hamdān* was misprinted in Arabic as a plain h—al-Rāzī al-Warsānī. In Ibn al-Athīr’s *al-Lubāb*, I found only the nisba al-Warsanānī, derived from Warsanān. He states: “I believe it is one of the villages of Samarqand.” In *al-Fihrist* (p. 189), Ibn al-Nadīm lists Abū Hātim al-Rāzī’s *Kitāb al-Zīna* among the Ismāīlī works and describes it as “a substantial work of approximately four hundred folios.” He also lists his *Kitāb al-Jāmi*, which contains jurisprudence and other subjects. Shaykh al-Kawtharī mentions this work in the index to Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Daylamī’s *Qawāid Āl Muhammad*, calling it *al-Jāmi fi al-Fiqh*, by Abū Hātim ibn Hamdān al-Warsanānī. Abū Hātim al-Rāzī also wrote *Alām al-Nubuwwa*, part of which B. Kraus published in *Rasāil al-Rāzī al-Falsafiyya* in 1939.