and the earth on a single finger, the mountains and the trees on a single finger, the water and the dust on a single finger, and the rest of creation on a single finger. Then He will shake them and proclaim, “I am the King.”

The narrator said, “The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—laughed so broadly that his molars became visible, out of amazement and in confirmation of the rabbi’s statement. He then recited:

‘They did not appreciate Allah with the appreciation due to Him; the whole earth will be in His grasp on the Day of Resurrection, and the heavens will be folded in His right hand’ (al-Zumar 39:67).”

The Torah likewise states, “Indeed, Allah wrote the Torah with His finger.”

If, then, such passages are found in the Torah and the earlier revealed books—with the agreement of the People of the Book, corroborated by reports from the Messenger to the same effect, and by his failure to repudiate what is in the Torah while affirming what they used to cite—Muslims are not uniquely singled out for mentioning what some have labeled tajsīm (anthropomorphism). Rather, the same implication necessarily applies to the People of the Book, both Jews and Christians, just as it applies to the Muslims.