the Predecessors were unanimous in declaring the disbelief of whoever denied that, because to them it is known by necessity from the religion..." End quote.

I say: Since the highness of God Almighty over His creation is a matter upon which the hearts of the creation are naturally disposed, the early Jahmiyya could not manifest, spread, and declare it before the commoners and the elite. Instead, they went on to deny other attributes of God Almighty, such as vision, speech, hearing, sight, and others.

Ibn Taymiyya, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Bayān Talbīs al-Jahmiyya (3/522): "...The Jahmiyya manifested the Issue of the Qurʾān and that it is created, and they manifested that God will not be seen in the Hereafter, but they would not manifest to the common believers and their scholars the denial that God is over the Throne, and that He is neither inside the world nor outside it. Rather, the scholars would know this from them through Inference and scrutiny, just as the hypocrites are known by the Nuance (Lahn) of speech... And this is as Ḥammād b. Zayd, the Imam who is among the greatest Imams of the religion, said:

'The Qurʾān is the speech of God, brought down by Jibrīl; they are only trying to say that there is no god in the heaven.'

Sulaymān b. Ḥarb also said: I heard Ḥammād b. Zayd mention these Jahmiyya, and he said:

'They are only trying to say: There is nothing in the heaven...'

And ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Mahdī said: 'There is no one among the people of desires more evil than the companions of Jahm; they revolve around saying: There is nothing in the heaven. I see, by God, that they should not be married, nor inherited from.'

...And the likes of this are many in the speech of the Predecessors and the Imams. They would refute what the Jahmiyya manifested of denying the vision and the creation of the Qurʾān, and they would mention what the Jahmiyya concealed which is greater than that: that God is not over the Throne, and they would make this the ultimate end of their statement, and that this is a divestment of the Maker, and a rejection of the Creator, since they would not manifest that among the believers as they would manifest the Issue of speech and vision; because it had settled in the hearts of the believers by the necessary natural disposition upon which they were created, and by the clear proofs and guidance that the messengers brought to them, and by what the people of Faith agreed upon regarding that, such that the Jahmiyya could not manifest its opposite..." etc.

And see: (p. 38).

And see also my book: Al-Iḥtijāj bi-l-Āthār al-Salafiyya (p. 445) (The Fourteenth Topic: (Section: The divesters revolve in their divestment of the attributes around the denial of the highness of God Almighty)).