He said (1): “All the scholars of tafsīr are unanimously agreed that what is meant by ‘hands’ (2) in His statement, ‘Have they not seen that We created for them, from what Our hands have fashioned, livestock’ (3) is power.”

He added: “What substantiates our position is that the evidence adduced by our Shaykh and by the Judge does not yield certainty in affirming two additional attributes beyond the established attributes. Although we do not, on rational grounds, deny the possibility of a revealed attribute that the intellect itself does not indicate, such an attribute can be affirmed only through transmitted proof, and that proof must be definitive. None of the proofs cited by our colleagues are definitive, and equivocal texts do not confer knowledge. The Muslims are unanimously agreed that, if an attribute hypothetically ascribed to Allah—Mighty and Exalted—cannot be established with certainty by either intellect or transmission (4), it must not be asserted categorically. Concerning the ‘two hands,’ as our Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—has discussed them, there is no wording that resists interpretation, nor is there consensus upon it; therefore, it must be interpreted in the manner we have explained.”

He further said: “The apparent sense of the expression ‘two hands’ (5) is that it refers to two limbs; yet if interpreting them (6) in that way is impossible, and if we are prevented from understanding them as power, favor, or dominion (7), then the assertion that they…"