And the doctrine of the early generations (the Salaf) is that they describe Allah only with what He has described Himself and with what His Messenger has described Him, without distortion or negation, and without asking how or likening Him to His creation.

The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—then set forth a number of beneficial points and comprehensive principles for affirming the divine attributes and refuting the Jahmiyyah. He also quoted so many statements from the predecessors of the Ummah and its leading scholars on affirming Allah’s exaltedness and other attributes that this place is too narrow to recount them all.

He concluded by saying:

“To sum up, the possible approaches to the Qur’anic verses and hadiths concerning the attributes fall into six categories, and each category is adopted by a faction within the community that faces the qiblah. Two categories say (1) that the texts are to be taken according to their apparent sense, two say that they are to be understood contrary to their apparent sense, and two remain silent.

As for the first pair, it itself divides into two:

1. Those who take the texts according to their apparent sense and regard that apparent sense as belonging to the same kind as the attributes of created beings. These are the anthropomorphists (mushabbihah); their doctrine is false, rejected by the Salaf, and it is against them that the rightful refutation is directed.

2. Those who take the texts according to their apparent sense in a manner befitting the majesty of Allah the Exalted, just as one applies