For that reason the Muslims follow a middle course in matters of Sacred Law. They do not reject a ruling that abrogates an earlier one on account of the ruling that has been abrogated, as the Jews did; nor do they alter any part of God’s definitive legislation, or invent statutes for which Allah has granted no permission, as the Christians did. They neither exaggerate in their veneration of the prophets and the righteous the way the Christians exaggerated, nor deny them their due rights as the Jews did. They do not attribute to the Creator—glorified be He—the properties, defects, and blemishes of created beings, such as poverty, miserliness, or incapacity, as the Jews did; nor do they confer upon any creature the exclusive attributes of the Creator—attributes of which nothing is comparable to Him—as the Christians did. They do not deem themselves too proud to worship Him, like the Jews, nor do they associate anyone with Him in worship, like the Christians.

Within the Muslim community, Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaʿah occupy the same middle ground that Islam itself holds among the other religions. Concerning the divine attributes they stand between those who deny and nullify them on one side, and those who liken Allah to His creation or anthropomorphize Him on the other. They describe Allah only with what He has described Himself and with what His messengers have described Him—without negation and without anthropomorphism. Thus they affirm the attributes of perfection while declaring Him utterly transcendent of having any rivals or equals in those attributes: affirmation without resemblance, and transcendence without denial.

As the Exalted says:

“There is nothing like unto Him” (Ash-Shura 42:11) — a refutation of those who liken,

“and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” (Ash-Shura 42:11).