Affirming the Attributes Is Like Affirming the Essence:

This is the doctrine transmitted by al-Khattabi and other early authorities. The words of the vast majority of them point to it, and the statements of the rest do not diverge from it. The matter is self-evident: the attributes are like the Essence. Just as Allah’s Essence truly exists without belonging to the genus of created essences, so His attributes truly exist without belonging to the genus of created attributes.

Hence, if someone says, “I can grasp no knowledge or hand except the sort of knowledge and hand familiar to us,” he is told, “How, then, do you conceive of an Essence that is unlike the essences of created things? It is obvious that the attributes of any being befit its very Essence and accord with its reality. Whoever understands the Lord’s attributes—He of whom nothing resembles Him—only in a way that suits a creature has gone astray in both intellect and faith.”

Whoever asks about the ‘how’ of the attributes must first be asked about the ‘how’ of the Essence:

How excellent is the remark of one of the scholars: “If the Jahmi demands of you, ‘How did He rise over the Throne? How does He descend to the lowest heaven? How are His two Hands?’ and the like…”