the chosen (1), a creation upon His image, Blessed and Exalted be He (2), and breathed into him of His spirit
Ibn Jarīr likewise narrated it as Mawquf in al-Tārīkh (1/93), al-Ājurrī in al-Sharīʿa (432), and Ibn Manda in al-Tawḥīd (485), from Salmān, may God be pleased with him, without doubt.
Its chain of transmission is Sahih (Authentic) as al-Dāraquṭnī said, and it is no secret that the likes of it cannot be said from opinion, so it takes the ruling of being Marfu'. And Allah knows best. [See: the editing of al-Naqḍ by al-Sammārī].
I say: It is astonishing that some of those occupied with editing the books of the Predecessors (Salaf) reject this report on the grounds that the Companion, may God be pleased with him, took it "from the sack of the People of the Book," and thus it is not accepted from him! Perhaps he realized what this Companion, may God be pleased with him, did not realize! Rather, what the imams of the Sunna and Aqidah, who narrated this report in their works without rejection or objection, did not realize.
But perhaps this accusation entered upon him and others from the doubts of the people of distortion and negation among the Jahmiyya, Ash'arites, and others, for they reject many of these narrations and what they indicate of affirming the attributes under the pretext that they are received from the People of the Book!
And this, as is not hidden, is an attack on the Companions, may God be pleased with them, by accusing them of narrating in our religion what is not permissible for them to narrate, and describing Allah the Exalted with what Allah is transcendent above!
Among them is this report; for here is the Ash'arite al-Bayhaqī in his book al-Asmāʾ wa-al-Ṣifāt (2/151), which he filled with distortion and interpretation of the attributes, saying that Salmān al-Fārisī, may God be pleased with him—who is the narrator of this report—took it from the People of the Book!
Ibn Taymiyya, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (13/345): "And with the Companion's certainty in what he says, how can it be said that he took it from the People of the Book, when they were forbidden from believing them?" End quote.
A refutation of this Jahmī doubt, by which they reject many of the attributes of Allah the Exalted, will come during the footnotes of this book.
