For what this line of argument really amounts to, according to them, is this: O servants of God, do not seek knowledge of Allah or of the attributes that befit Him—whether by way of affirmation or negation—from the Quran, the Sunnah, or the path of the early generations. Instead, look to your own reasoning; whatever you find Him deserving of in names and attributes, ascribe them to Him—whether those attributes are mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah or not. And whatever your intellects deem unfitting, refrain from ascribing it to Him.

The Method of the Deniers in Rejecting the Attributes:

At this point they split into two factions. The majority say, “Whatever your intellects do not establish, deny it.” A second group says, “Rather, suspend judgment; yet whatever the measuring-rod of your minds—about which you differ and waver more than anyone else on earth—negates, then negate it, and in any dispute refer back to that standard, for it alone is the truth with which you have been charged. As for anything in the Book and the Sunnah that conflicts with this criterion of yours, or affirms what your minds have not grasped—as is the approach of most of them—then know that I am only testing you by revealing it, not that you should take guidance from it, but that you should labor to interpret it according to rare exceptions