Likewise, they assert with regard to the ḥadiths on the divine attributes that “no one knows their meaning except Allah,” even though the Messenger ﷺ was the very one who voiced those narrations at the outset. According to their claim, he therefore uttered words whose import he himself did not understand.
They imagine that they are following Allah’s statement, “And none knows its interpretation except Allah” (Qur’an 3:7). Many of the early scholars indeed paused their recitation at the phrase, “And none knows its interpretation except Allah,” and such a pause is sound. Yet those people failed to distinguish between the meaning of the discourse and its explanation, on the one hand, and the interpretation (taʾwīl) that Allah alone possesses, on the other. They supposed that the taʾwīl mentioned in Allah’s words is identical to the taʾwīl discussed by later scholars,