on mere whims, corrupt conjectures, or bankrupt rational analogies, as is the practice of the proponents of religious innovation who negate the attributes of the Lord, Glorified is He. Whoever relies upon his own whims in matters of magnifying Allah, without guidance from Him, will stumble in this matter and fall into many forms of falsehood and error.

It is reported that when Abd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī—may Allah have mercy on him—was told that the Jahmiyyah rejected the hadiths concerning the divine attributes, saying, “Allah is too great to be described by any of these things,” he said: “Some people were ruined because of misguided notions of magnifying Allah. They said, ‘Allah is too great to send down a Book or dispatch a messenger.’” He then recited: “They did not esteem Allah as He deserves when they said, ‘Allah has not revealed anything to any human being.’”1 He then said: “Did the Magians perish for any reason other than misguided notions of magnifying Allah? They said, ‘Allah is too great for us to worship Him directly; rather, we worship someone who is nearer to Him than we are.’ So they worshipped the sun and prostrated to it. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, then revealed: ‘Those who take protectors besides Him [say], “We worship them only so that they may bring us nearer to Allah.”’”2 3.

These words of his—may Allah have mercy on him—indicate that if magnifying Allah and declaring Him transcendent are not guided by the Quran and Sunnah, they culminate in utter negation and outright rejection—Allah is our refuge. Anyone who reflects upon the condition of the misguided sects and deviant groups that adopted this approach to declaring Allah transcendent and magnifying Him will find that they achieved nothing thereby except denigrating the Lord of the worlds and denying His attributes of perfection and qualities of majesty, until