5- ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd al-Dārimī — and he is the imam of the people of the East — said:
The Jahmiyya claimed that God has no Al-Ḥadd, and they only mean by this word:
That God Almighty is not a thing, since it is known to all of creation that there is nothing upon which the name of a thing applies except that it has: Al-Ḥadd, and an attribute.
So their statement: "He has no Al-Ḥadd" means: He is not a thing.
And God Almighty has said: {Say, "What thing is greatest in testimony?" Say, "God"} [al-Anʿām: 19] (1).
Al-Dhahabī commented on it by saying: "I say: The correct view is to refrain from using that term, since no textual evidence has come regarding it. Even if we assume that the meaning is correct, it is not for us to utter something that God has not permitted, out of fear that some innovation might enter the heart..." End quote.
I say: How can the correct view be to refrain from a matter that the imams of the Predecessors and the scholars of the Sunna have spoken of?! They were more fearful, more scrupulous, and more God-fearing than us, and we are merely followers of them. They spoke of that in affirming the elevation of God Almighty over His creation, and their condemnation and boycotting of those who denied it was severe, as was explained previously in the introduction. We have only to adhere to their path, and let what sufficed them suffice us.
Ibn Taymiyya, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (2/477): "The Predecessors and the imams are more knowledgeable of Islam and its realities, for many people may not understand their severity in condemning a statement until they ponder it and are granted the light of guidance." End quote.
