sense of the Quran, and that can be demonstrated from several angles:

1. Allah, Exalted is He, says only, “that it may sail under Our Eyes” (Surah al-Qamar 14) and, “Have they not seen that We created for them, out of what Our Hands have wrought, livestock?” (Surah Ya-Sin 70). The Jahmi’s claim that the outward wording here affirms (1) numerous eyes and numerous hands is an obvious fabrication. For were the outward sense really to affirm many eyes and many hands, it would also affirm numerous creators, since the word “Hands” is attached to a plural pronoun. So go ahead, O Jahmi, and claim that its apparent sense is the affirmation of many hands belonging to multiple gods; otherwise, your assertion that it affirms many hands for a single Essence runs counter to the apparent sense. The same applies to His words, “that it may sail under Our Eyes” (al-Qamar 14): on your reading its outward wording would indicate many eyes belonging to multiple beings, not to one.

2. It is also said to you: your allegation that the Quran’s apparent sense affirms many hands on a single side is yet another falsehood. Where, in the outward wording of the Quran, is it stated that the hands are on the side? Evidently you took that from drawing an analogy with the children of Adam—you first anthropomorphized and then denied. Likewise, your placement of numerous eyes in (2) a single face is supported by nothing in the Quran’s outward wording; you derived it only by likening Allah to human beings and animals. Hence some scholars have said, “Every denier is an anthropomorphist; his denial can stand only after anthropomorphism.”

3. It is further said: where, in the Quran’s apparent wording, is the affirmation of a single shin (sāq) for Allah or a single side (janb)? Allah, Glorified be He, has merely said, “On the Day when the shin shall be laid bare” (Surah al-Qalam 42) [ق 9 أ] and, “Lest a soul should say, ‘Alas for what I neglected regarding the side of Allah’” (Surah al-Zumar 53). Thus