He (may his glory be exalted) said: "This one intended affirmation, and that one likened his Lord (Exalted is He) to a creature. Exalted is God Who has no likeness, no parallel, no equal, and no peer, nor is He in the attributes of the created beings. Do not speak according to what Hisham ibn Salim said, but speak according to what the mawla of the family of Yaqtin and his companion said."1
Look at the subtle dissimulation in the report, O believer! The Master al-Rida (may his glory be exalted) asked al-Hannat to speak according to the saying of Hisham ibn al-Hakam and his companion Yunus ibn 'Abd al-Rahman. I wonder, what was the saying of Yunus ibn 'Abd al-Rahman and his companion Hisham ibn al-Hakam?
"And Yunus, the mawla of the family of Yaqtin, and Hisham ibn al-Hakam claimed that God is a Thing not like things, that things are distinct from Him, and that He is distinct from things. And they both claimed that the affirmation of the 'Thing' is to say 'Body,' so He is a Body not like bodies, a Thing not like things, affirmed, existing, not absent, nor non-existent, outside of the two limits: the limit of negation and the limit of anthropomorphism. So which of the two sayings should I adopt?" "And they both claimed that the affirmation of the 'Thing' is to say 'Body,' so He is not like bodies!!"
A Thing not like things, affirmed, existing, not absent, nor non-existent, outside of the two limits: the limit of negation and anthropomorphism!!
By my life, by God, this is nothing but our saying! This is nothing but our religion! This is nothing but our affair!
Al-'Abbasi said: I said to him, meaning Abu al-Hasan al-Rida (may his glory be exalted): "May I be made your ransom, one of your loyal followers ordered me to ask you about a matter." He said: "And who is he?" I said: "Al-Hasan ibn Sahl." He said: "In what thing is the matter?" He said: "I said: 'In Tawhid.'" He said: "And what thing of Tawhid?" He said: "He asks you about God: is He a Body or not a Body?" He said: So he said to me: "Indeed, people have three schools of thought regarding Tawhid: a school of affirmation with anthropomorphism, a school of negation, and a school of affirmation without anthropomorphism. The school of affirmation with anthropomorphism is not permissible. The school of negation is not permissible. The path is in the third school: affirmation without anthropomorphism."2