It is apparent from this that these strong judgements...

It is apparent from this that these strong judgements, which have been stated both in the past and at the present, concerning the influence of the Mu‘tazilah on the Imamiyyah, are unfounded. I have made it clear that they were not influenced by the Mu‘tazilah in their beliefs; this was my intention in this introduction, and as for the study of other aspects, I leave that task to another time.

However, I would like to put forward here a single example of these biting judgements, being the least weighty of examples, and the least outrageous and arbitrary in its connection with as- Saduq and al-Mufid. M.

McDermott mentions that the Kitabu 't- Tawhid by as-Saduq was composed later than his two other books, al-I‘tiqadatu 'l-Imamiyyah and al-Hidayah, and that as- Saduq was therein closer to the thinking of the Mu‘tazilah than he was in the other two, since after as-Saduq had emigrated to Rayy, he lived in the Buyid court there.

Perhaps this difference was due to 'the pressure of the vizier as-Sahib ibn ‘Abbad[^1] or the influence of Mu‘tazilite arguments may well have changed his thinking.'[^2] But there is more weighty evidence from an earlier period. Al-Kulayni, the Shaykh Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Ya‘qub ar- Razi, then al-Baghdadi (d.

329/941), was a Traditionist shaykh of the Imamiyyah who lived in Rayy and then moved to Baghdad at the end of his life and died there.[^3] Al-Kulayni gave a chapter in the section on tawhid in al-Kafi the title Ta’wilu 's- samad (the interpretation of samad), and quoted there two hadith which explained samad as His eternal mastery over everything, great or small,[^4] and then went on to state: This is the correct interpretation of as-samad, not what anthropomorphism holds about it: that the interpretation of as-samad is a solid, which has no void within it.

That interpretation is nothing more than an attribute of bodies, and Allah, glory be to His name, is above this; . . . if the interpretation of as-samad as an attribute of Allah were solidity, then it would contradict His words: There is nothing like Him (ash-Shura, 42:11), because solidity is an attribute of solid bodies which have no voids, like stone, or iron, or other solid objects . . .

And as for what is stated in Tradition concerning this matter, the knower (i.e., the infallible Imam), peace be upon him, is more knowledgeable by what he said.