that the very proof of the mind’s inability to fathom His attribute lies in its failure to fathom the attribute of the least of His creatures—a speck so tiny that you can scarcely see it as it comes and goes. You detect in it neither hearing nor sight, yet the subtle intelligence by which it moves about and schemes is more perplexing to you and more hidden than any trace of hearing or sight that might appear in it. Blessed, then, is Allah, the best of creators— their Creator, the Master of masters, their Lord: “There is nothing like unto Him; He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” (ash-Shūrā 11).

Realize—may Allah have mercy on you—that you are spared the burden of probing into any attribute the Lord has not described of Himself, because you are already incapable of grasping the full measure of what He has described. If you cannot comprehend the extent of what He has disclosed, why burden yourself with what He has not disclosed? Will such speculation guide you to any act of obedience, or restrain you from any act of disobedience?

As for the one who, out of pretentious profundity, denies what the Lord has affirmed about Himself, “the devils have lured him deep into the earth, leaving him bewildered” (al-Anʿām 71). He then pretends to argue for rejecting what the Lord has affirmed and named for Himself, saying, “If He possesses such-and-such, He must necessarily possess such-and-such.” Thus he becomes blind to what is obvious because of what is obscure, and he denies.