Section Eight (1)
On exposing their error in deriving false meanings from the scriptural texts—meanings for which they resorted to figurative interpretation—and how they thereby combined anthropomorphism with nullification

This section [ق 8 ب] lays bare one of the strangest affairs of the figurative interpreters: they extracted from the texts a false meaning that can never have been intended, then diverted those texts from their true, intended sense. In doing so they thought ill of the texts and of the One who spoke them, and they stripped the passages of the realities that constitute the very perfection of the One described by them. We shall confine ourselves to a single example mentioned by one of the Jahmiyyah and then state our reply to it.

The Jahmi said: “The Quran speaks of the face, of eyes, of a single eye, of a single side, of a single shin (2), of hands, of two hands, and of a single hand (3). If we were to take the wording at face value, we would have to affirm a being who possesses a face upon which are many eyes, who has only one side bearing many hands, and who has a single shin. We do not see (4) in this world any creature whose appearance is uglier than this imagined form, nor do we think that any rational person would deem it fitting to describe his Lord in such a way (5).”