Section Eight:

Mention of Those Who Denied the “Limit” (al-Hadd) for Allah the Almighty

The first for whom the denial of the limit for Allah the Almighty became notorious were the Jahmiyyah, who negated the attributes of Allah the Almighty and denied His transcendence (‘uluw) over His creation. Subsequently, many of those who were influenced by them and followed their creed of negating and allegorically interpreting (ta’wil) the attributes adopted this from them.

Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) stated in Bayan Talbis al-Jahmiyyah (3/683):

“They [the Imams] mentioned that Jahm and his followers were the first to innovate these negative attributes in Islam and to negate their opposites, such as their sayings: ‘He is not above the world,’ ‘He is neither inside the world nor outside of it,’ ‘He is not in one place to the exclusion of another,’ ‘He is not localized (mutahayyiz),’ ‘He is not a substance (jawhar),’ ‘He is not a body (jism),’ ‘He has no end (nihayah),’ ‘He has no limit (hadd),’ and similar expressions. All of these expressions and their like were never narrated from any of the Companions, the Successors (Tabi‘un), or the renowned Imams of the religion. No hadith from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was reported regarding them, nor are they found in any of the Books revealed by Allah. Rather, these are the sayings of the Jahmiyyah and part of the theological rhetoric (kalam) that the Pious Predecessors (Salaf) unanimously condemned for what its innovators introduced. Thus, whenever the condemnation of the Jahmiyyah appears in the speech of the Salaf, those who used these expressions are included in that; and whenever their condemnation of theological rhetoric (kalam) and the theologians (mutakallimun) appears, those who used these expressions...”