Yunus said: The man stood up from his presence, and he had not reached the door by ten steps before he fell down, struck unconscious. He had vomited his own excrement and was carried away dead.
So Abu al-Hasan (may his glory be exalted) said: "An angel came to him with a pillar in his hand and struck him on his skull a blow that inverted his bladder until he vomited his excrement, and God hastened his spirit to the Abyss and joined him with his companion who narrated to him, Yunus ibn Zabyan, and the vision of the devil that used to appear to him."1
This Hadith is based on dissimulation. For it is known among the "detractors," in their books, that our Master praised Ibn Zabyan. And if reports cursing him are found in their possession, this is on the basis of dissimulation. And this "Tayyar" (extremist)—may God reward him—spoke nothing but the truth and said nothing but what is correct. How could the devils descend upon the like of Ibn Zabyan? {Shall I inform you upon whom the devils descend? (221) They descend upon every sinful liar. (222) They pass on what is heard, and most of them are liars. (223)}2 By God, these liars are none other than Zurara and his companions.
From Hisham al-Mashriqi, he said: I wrote to Abu al-Hasan al-Khurasani3 (may his glory be exalted) [about] a man asking about meanings in Tawhid. He said: So he said to me: "What do you say if they say to you: 'Inform us about God, is He a "Thing" or "Not-a-thing"?'" He said: "So I said: 'Indeed, God affirmed Himself as a "Thing," for He said: {Say, "What thing is greatest in testimony?" Say, "God is witness between me and you"} I do not say a "Thing" like things, or we say that God is a "Body."'"
So he (may his glory be exalted) said: "And what is weak in this: 'Indeed, God is a Body, not like bodies, and nothing of the created beings resembles Him'?"
He said: Then he said: "Indeed, people have three schools of thought regarding Tawhid: a school of negation, a school of anthropomorphism, and a school of affirmation without anthropomorphism. The school of negation is not permissible, and the school of anthropomorphism is not permissible, because nothing resembles God. The path in this is the third way, and that is that He is 'Affirmed', [but] nothing resembles Him, and He is as He described Himself: One, Eternally Self-Sufficient, Light."4