and in another verse: “So the evil consequences of what they earned overtook them” ⦗al-Zumar 51⦘.

Third point: In the first verse—“for what I created with My two Hands” ⦗Ṣād 75⦘—the verb is linked, by the preposition with (bi-), to two Hands. These two Hands cannot possibly denote His very Self, for the dual form restricts the number to exactly two, while the Lord—glorified and exalted—is one God. He would not refer to Himself in the dual, which conveys an explicit, limited number. Rather, He sometimes speaks of Himself in the singular to affirm His oneness, and at other times in the plural to express majesty; the plural may also hint at the diverse meanings of His names.

By contrast, in the second verse He attaches the verb to “Hands” in the plural, attributed to Him for the purpose of magnification, so that what is meant by those Hands is His sanctified Self, exalted be He.

Hence the distinction is evident between His words, “for what I created with My two Hands” ⦗Ṣād 75⦘ and His words, “out of that which Our Hands have wrought” ⦗Yā Sīn 71⦘: the two statements are not equivalent. It is likewise clear that the plain sense of the scriptural passages on the divine attributes constitutes a true and firmly established meaning intended by Allah in a manner befitting Him, involving neither deficiency on His part nor any likeness to His creation.

However, if we are speaking to someone who, from the apparent wording, understands only a sense that implies assimilation, we say to him: the meaning you have understood is not intended. We then clarify that this is not the true apparent meaning of the texts, for such a meaning is false and the context—as previously explained—does not support it.