and the Community; that is not their doctrine at all. Rather, they take the texts dealing with the Divine names and attributes at their face value, and the only matter whose knowledge they consign to Allah alone is the modality of the attribute itself. Such is the stance of Ahl al-Sunnah waʾl-Jamāʿah concerning the scriptural texts.

The proof for their position drawn from this ḥadīth is plain: when the Companions—who are the very imams of Ahl al-Sunnah waʾl-Jamāʿah—did not understand what a qirāṭ was, they asked about it. Is it imaginable that they would inquire about the meaning of “qirāṭ,” yet fail to ask about whatever they did not grasp of Allah’s names and attributes? They possessed sound knowledge of Allah’s names and attributes, while the manner in which those attributes are realized is what remained unknown to them—and that is what they consigned to Allah.