Al-Humaydī reported: Ḥuṣayn narrated to us, from Muslim ibn Ṣabīḥ, from Shutayr ibn Shakal, from ʿAbd Allāh—may Allah be pleased with him—who said, “Allah has created no earth and no heaven, no Paradise and no Hell, greater than His words, ‘Allah! There is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer’ (al-Baqarah 255).” ⦗34⦘

Sufyān, in his commentary, said, “Everything is created, but the Qur’an is not created. His speech is greater than His creation, for He says to a thing, ‘Be!’ and it is; nothing can be greater than the very word by which creation comes into existence. The Qur’an is the speech of Allah.”

Zuhayr al-Sijistānī said: I heard Sallām ibn Abī Muṭīʿ declare, “The Jahmiyyah are unbelievers.”

ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd said, “Jahm is a disbeliever in Allah the Magnificent.”

Wakīʿ said, “These Murji’ite Jahmites are innovators—and the Jahmiyyah are unbelievers. Al-Marīsī is a Jahmite, and you know how they fell into kufr: they claim that mere knowledge is sufficient, and that is disbelief. The Murji’ah say that faith is a statement without deeds, and that is an innovation. Whoever says, ‘The Qur’an is created,’ has disbelieved in what was sent down to Muhammad ﷺ; he must be ordered to repent, and if he refuses his neck is to be struck.”

He also said, “Upon al-Marīsī is the curse of Allah—he is a Jew or a Christian!” Someone asked, “Was his father or grandfather a Jew or a Christian?” Wakīʿ replied, “Upon him and upon his followers is the curse of Allah. The Qur’an is the speech of Allah.” Striking one hand upon the other, he added, “There is a vile man in Baghdad called al-Marīsī; he must be compelled to repent, and if he does not, his head is to be struck off.”

Yazīd ibn Hārūn said, “I exerted myself to incite the people of Baghdad to kill him, and once, when I heard part of his speech, I felt its pain in my backbone for three days.”

ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh said, “His only goal was to draw people into his disbelief.”

ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿĀʾishah said, “Do not pray behind anyone who says, ‘The Qur’an is created’—he deserves no honor. If one nevertheless prays behind him, uttering the takbīr only as a precaution, that will suffice, yet I still prefer that he avoid him, for they say, ‘A thing that is nothing’; they say, ‘Allah is nothing.’”

Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Hāshimī and Sahl ibn Muzāḥim both stated, “Whoever prays behind one who says the Qur’an is created must repeat his prayer.”

Ibn al-Aswad related: I heard Ibn Mahdī say to Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, “If a Jahmite were my own relative, I would not deem it lawful to take a penny of his inheritance.” ⦗35⦘ Ibn Mahdī also said, “Were I to meet a man on the bridge, sword in hand, proclaiming, ‘The Qur’an is created,’ I would strike off his head.”

Yazīd ibn Hārūn remarked, “Al-Marīsī is the most contemptible person ever to come to me.”

Abū ʿAbd Allāh said, “Praying behind a Jahmite Rāfiḍī is to me no different from praying behind Jews or Christians. They are not to be greeted with salām, visited when sick, married, accepted as witnesses, or eaten from their slaughter.”

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī said, “There are two separate religions: the Jahmiyyah and the Rāfiḍah.”

It was said to Ibn ʿUbayd that al-Marīsī had been asked about the beginning of creation in view of Allah’s words, ‘Our only statement to a thing, when We intend it, is that We say to it “Be!” and it is’ (al-Naḥl 40). He answered, “All of it is merely elliptical expression (kalām ṣilah). The meaning is that He ‘causes’—as when one says, ‘The sky spoke, so it rained,’ or, ‘The wall spoke, so it leaned.’ Allah the Exalted said, ‘A wall that wanted to collapse, so he set it upright’ (al-Kahf 77), yet the wall has no will. Thus ‘when We intend it’ means: We bring it into being, and it is.” That, and no more, was al-Marīsī’s answer—implying that Allah, exalted is He, does not speak.

Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām responded: “To liken Allah’s words ‘when We intend it’ (al-Naḥl 40) to the phrases ‘The sky said, so it rained’ or ‘The wall said, so it leaned’ is no likeness at all; it is a sophistry he has introduced. If you say, ‘The sky said,’ then fall silent, no one knows what ‘said’ means until you add, ‘so it rained.’ The same applies if you say, ‘The wall intended,’ without explaining the intent. But when you say, ‘Allah said,’ it is complete in itself; ‘He said’ needs no further proof, unlike ‘The wall said, so it leaned,’ for without ‘so it leaned,’ the phrase is meaningless. Whoever affirms such an interpretation embraces a form of unbelief that is surpassed by none; he has spoken of Allah what neither the Jews nor the Christians ever claimed, and his doctrine is the total negation of the Creator.” ⦗36⦘

ʿAlī said: I heard Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal mention that Ibn Khallūbah in Basra was a Jahmite; Bishr said, “He is a disbeliever.”

Wakīʿ, when asked about Muthannā al-Anmāṭī, replied, “A disbeliever.” ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dāwūd added, “If I could get at Muthannā al-Anmāṭī I would pull his tongue out through the back of his neck—for he is a Jahmite.”

Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Hāshimī said, “Whoever claims the Qur’an is created is a disbeliever. If, as they assert, the Qur’an is created, why is Pharaoh more deserving of eternal punishment for saying, ‘I am your highest lord’ (al-Nāziʿāt 24)—a statement they say is created—while the One who said, ‘Indeed I am Allah; there is no deity except Me, so worship Me’ (Tā Hā 14) has made the very same claim? Why should Pharaoh be singled out for eternal punishment if both statements are created?” When Abū ʿUbayd heard this argument, he approved and admired it.

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad said, “It has become clear to me that these people are unbelievers.”

Al-Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ said, “If a Jahmite tells you, ‘I disbelieve in a Lord who moves from place to place,’ reply, ‘I believe in a Lord who does whatever He wills.’”

Ibn ʿUyaynah related: “I once saw Ibn Idrīs standing beside a scribe. I asked, ‘Abū Muḥammad, what are you doing here?’ He answered, ‘I am listening to the speech of my Lord from the mouth of this boy.’”

Yazīd ibn Hārūn warned against the Jahmiyyah, saying, “Whoever claims that the All-Merciful’s establishment over the Throne is other than what settles naturally in the hearts of ordinary believers is a Jahmite; Muḥammad al-Shaybānī is a Jahmite.” ⦗37⦘

Ḍamrah ibn Rabīʿah reported from Ṣadaqah: I heard Sulaymān al-Taymī say, “Were I asked, ‘Where is Allah?’ I would answer, ‘In the heaven.’ If he then asked, ‘Where was His Throne before the heaven?’ I would say, ‘Upon the water.’ If he continued, ‘Where was His Throne before the water?’ I would say, ‘I do not know.’” Abū ʿAbd Allāh commented, “This accords with His words, ‘They encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He wills’ (al-Baqarah 255); meaning, except what He has made clear.”

Ibn ʿUyaynah, Muʿādh ibn Muʿādh, al-Ḥajjāj ibn Muḥammad, Yazīd ibn Hārūn, Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim, al-Rabīʿ ibn Nāfiʿ al-Ḥalabī, Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf, ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim, Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, and the scholars at large all declared: “Whoever says, ‘The Qur’an is created,’ is a disbeliever.”

Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf further said, “Whoever claims that Allah is not upon His Throne is a disbeliever, and whoever denies that Allah spoke to Moses is a disbeliever.”

Someone asked him, “You have met many people; have you ever heard anyone say that the Qur’an is created?” He replied, “It is Satan who speaks such words. Whoever utters them is a Jahmite, and the Jahmite is a disbeliever.”