for such a meaning is impossible, and—as we have clarified elsewhere—it is by no means the most obvious reading. That is, unless this impossible meaning has, in fact, come to appear obvious to some people; if so, the one who calls it the apparent sense is, from that relative standpoint, correct and therefore excused for speaking in such absolute terms.

What is manifest and what is concealed can vary with people’s individual states; it is a relative matter. A better course would have been to explain to anyone who thinks this is the apparent sense that it is not, thereby giving the words of Allah and His Messenger their full right in both wording and meaning.

However, if the person reporting on the salaf meant—by saying, “the apparent sense is not intended by them”—that the meanings which arise from these verses and hadiths and which befit Allah’s majesty and greatness, being in no way confined to created attributes but rather either necessary for Allah or at least possible for Him, whether conceivably or actually, are not intended, then he has erred in what he has transmitted from