They listen to the descriptions Allah has given of Himself and accept them, for that is exactly what He has implanted in their consciences and fashioned into the very knowledge of their hearts. Whatever Allah has attributed to Himself—calling it by name upon the tongue of His Messenger ﷺ—we in turn call it by that same name. We do not go beyond it to invent some other attribute—neither this nor that. We neither deny what He has affirmed nor burden ourselves with probing what He has left unmentioned.

Know, may Allah have mercy on you, that safety in the religion is to stop where the religion has caused you to stop and not to overstep the boundary set for you. Part of the religion’s sound framework is to recognize what is right and to repudiate what is wrong. Therefore, with regard to anything that knowledge has laid out clearly, to which hearts are at ease, whose foundation is found in the Book and the Sunnah, and whose understanding has been passed down through the ummah, have no fear that describing your Lord by what He has described of Himself is in any way blameworthy. Nor should you tax yourself to determine how such attributes are to be measured.

But whatever your soul instinctively rejects—and you find no mention of it in your Lord’s Book or in the hadith of your Prophet concerning your Lord—do not force your intellect to grasp it, do not describe it with your tongue. Remain silent about it just as the Lord has kept silent about it with respect to Himself, for should you burden yourself with seeking to know