—sheer obfuscation and misrepresentation! Even if an ordinary person were to say such a thing, the apparent sense of his words would not convey it; so how could the most eloquent and lucid speech (1) possibly intend it?

Fifth: A singular noun in the construct state may be intended to denote more than one, as in His words: “If you try to count the blessing of Allah, you will never be able to enumerate it” (16:18); “and she confirmed the words of her Lord and His Book (2)” (66:12); and: “It has been made lawful for you, on the night of fasting, to approach your wives” (2:187). Should ‘side’ and ‘shin’ be attributes, they would resemble His statements: “in whose hand is the dominion” (67:1), “in Your hand is all good (3)” (3:26), and: “that you may be fashioned under My eye” (20:39).

Sixth: One may ask, where in the plain wording of the Qur’an is a single ‘side’ affirmed as an attribute of Allah? It is well-known that none of the children of Adam maintain such a thing. Those who affirm the divine attributes more than anyone else are the Ahl al-Sunnah and the scholars of hadith, who uphold the report-based attributes of Allah,