be believed in: what he reports must be accepted as true, and what he commands must be obeyed. As for anything not established from the Messenger, no judgment need be made either denying or affirming it until the speaker’s intended meaning is known and the validity of denying or affirming it has been ascertained.

As for ambiguous terms, speaking of them in terms of denial or affirmation without first seeking clarification leads to ignorance and error, turmoil and madness, and idle talk. It has been said:

Most disagreements among rational people arise because terms are shared by different meanings.

Both groups—those who deny corporeality and those who affirm it—are found among the Shi'a and among those of Ahl al-Sunnah who stand opposed to the Shi'a, by which I mean those who uphold the imamate of the first three caliphs.

The term “body” was first used by Shi'i theologians such as Hishām ibn al-Hakam, as reported by Ibn Hazm and others.

[The Rāfidah’s Doctrines concerning Corporealism]

Abū al-Hasan al-Ash'arī said in his book Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn wa Ikhtilāf al-Musallīn (The Doctrines of the Muslims and the Disagreements among Those Who Pray) (1):

“The Rāfidah, the proponents of the Imamate, differed (2) regarding corporealism. They comprise six sects. The first sect (3) is the Hishāmiyyah, the followers of Hishām ibn al-Hakam al-Rāfidī. They claim that the object of their worship is a body, finite and bounded, long, broad, and deep, and that its length—”