Ibn al-Qayyim (رحمه الله) said, explaining the position of the various factions in their understanding of Tawḥid :[1]
The tawḥid of the Jahmiyyah is derived from the tawḥid of the Philosophers and it is the negation of the attributes of the Lord such as His knowledge, speech, hearing, seeing, life, being above His Throne and negating His face and two hands.
The central axis of this tawḥid is to deny the realities of His names and attributes...
They called the people to falsehood in the name of tawḥīd, and made it a cover, a shield and a [means] of protection. Then they call the Tawḥīd with which Allāh sent His Messengers and Prophets as tarkīb (composition), tajsīm (embodiment) and tashbīh (resemblance, anthropomorphism) and they made this titles as spears and weapons by which they fight the people (of that Tawḥid).
So they shielded themselves by the correct names which are with the people of truth and fought them with false names with which they labelled what Allāh sent His Messenger with.
Hence, they fought them with the label of tarkīb, tajsīm and tashbīh and shielded themselves with the labels of tawḥid (affirmation of oneness for Allāh) and tanzīh (negating defects and shortcomings from Allāh).
Notes
01 The tawḥīd of the Philosophers is an abstract notion of oneness in the mind, stripped of all meanings additional to this theoretical oneness which has no existence in external reality. It is impossible for anything to exist without having at least one attribute (other than existence itself). They deny all names, attributes, descriptions and actions for Allāh, claiming that affirming any positive attribute entails embodiment (tajsīm) and rendering Allāh to be from the originated things (ḥawādith).
02 This corrupt understanding tawḥīd entered the Muslims through the Jahmiyyah who had acquired this through debate and discussion from the Jews, Christians and the Sabeans of Ḥarrān, all of whom had come under the influence of Greek philosophy. The Muʿtazilah, Kullābiyyah, Ashāʿirah and Māturīdiyyah inherited this understading to varying degrees, and so they share with each other in negating something from what Allāh and His Messenger decribed Him with.
03 What has been described by Ibn al-Qayyim (رحمه الله) is the way and technique of all people of falsehood whether among those ascribing to Islām or among the disbelievers, from those who seek corruption and elevation upon the earth. They shield and protect themselves through words of truth (whose meanings they twist and distort for their own ends) and then use other words as weapons, words which are ambiguous, dubious and unclear. They enter true meanings under these words, to discredit and malign those meanings and those who speak with them.
Arabic Text:
Footnotes
1. Al-Ṣawāʿiq al-Mursalah (3/931-932). See also Bayān Talbīs al-Jahmiyyah (3/94)
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