that (1) the Quran is uncreated, that Allah will be seen in the Hereafter, and other doctrines of Ahl al-Sunnah [and the hadith scholars] (2). Rather, they went so far as to introduce well-known innovations into their doctrines involving excessive affirmation, corporealism, division into parts (3), and likening Allah to His creation [which others have recorded] (4).

Toward the end of the third century, however, some among the Shia adopted the doctrines of the Mutazilah, such as Ibn al-Nawbakhtī, author of al-Ārā wa al-Diyānāt (Opinions and Religions) (5), and others like him. After (6) them came al-Mufīd ibn al-Numān and his followers.

Accordingly, you find (7) that authors who wrote about sectarian doctrines—such as al-Asharī—do not report that any of the Shia agreed with the Mutazilah in their doctrines of divine unity and justice, except some of their later figures. Rather, they report of some (8) of their early figures that they espoused corporealism, affirmed the divine decree, and held other such doctrines. The first person known in Islam to have said (9), “Allah is a body,” was—