the shameful deeds—those that are open and those that are hidden—sin, unjust aggression, that you associate with Allah anything for which He has sent down no authority, and that you say about Allah what you do not know.” (al-Aʿrāf 7:33)

Rational evidence for this is as follows: A thing’s modality can be known only in one of three ways—by seeing it directly, by observing something exactly like it, or by receiving truthful information about it. None of these avenues exists for the modality of Allah’s Essence and attributes; therefore the “how” of Allah’s Essence and attributes is unknown to us.

Moreover, we ask: What modality can you possibly conceive for Allah’s Essence and attributes? Whatever picture you form in your mind or articulate with your tongue, Allah is greater and more exalted than that. Indeed, any modality you imagine or utter is false, for you have no evidence for it.

Continuation

From this clarification—that nothing in the Quran has a meaning known only to Allah—it becomes clear that the doctrine of the mufawwiḍah is false. They relinquish the knowledge of the meanings of the verses on the divine attributes and claim that this was the way of the early generations (salaf). They have gone astray in what they assert and have lied about the salaf. The salaf consigned only the knowledge of the “how,” not the knowledge of the meaning. Their affirmations of the meanings of these texts are mass-transmitted, sometimes in summary form, sometimes in detail. Among the summary statements is their saying, “Pass them on as they have come, without asking how,” and among the detailed statements is what Mālik said about istiwāʾ (Allah’s establishment over the Throne).

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah states in his book Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa-l-Naql, also known as al-ʿAql wa-l-Naql, 1/16 (printed in the margin of Minhāj al-Sunnah, 1/201, ed. Rashād Sālim): “As for tafwīḍ (consigning the meaning), it is well known that Allah has commanded us—”