obligatory, they would almost certainly have devoted more attention to them than to the ancillary rulings of the Sharia. And because their age—and that of the Successors after them—passed with a deliberate refusal to engage in interpretation, that course remains the one to follow. It is therefore incumbent upon every believer to affirm that Allah is utterly transcendent above the attributes of created beings, not to plunge into interpreting the problematic texts, and to consign their true import to the Lord. Thus, let him leave the verse of istiwāʾ, the verse of coming, His words, “what I created with My two hands” (Ṣād 75), “Only the Face of your Lord, full of majesty and honor, will endure” (al-Raḥmān 27), His words, “sailing under Our eyes” (al-Qamar 14), and every authentic report from the Messenger of Allah—such as the ḥadith of Divine descent and the like—just as we have set forth.

[Not everyone who transmits the Shaykh’s words here agrees with everything upheld by Ahl al-Sunnah.]

I say: Let the inquirer know that the purpose of this reply is to cite the exact wording