such an unqualified usage does not imply that it is only a single side (1). The Prophet ﷺ said to ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn: “Pray standing; if you are unable, then seated; and if you are unable, then on your side” (2). This does not mean that ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn (3) had only one side.

If someone objects, “What is meant is: on one of your two sides,” we reply that the very fact that the word ‘side’ (janb) is mentioned in the singular does not negate the presence of another side, and nothing in the outward wording indicates such a limitation.

The same applies to the word “foot” (qadam). When it appears in the singular, it does not prove that the one described possesses only a single foot, as in the sound ḥadīth: “until the Lord of Glory places His foot (4) upon it” (5); and in the ḥadīth: “I am al-ʿĀqib, the one at whose foot people will be gathered” (6).

Eighth: ⦗9b⦘ We say: From where, in the apparent text of the Quran, is it established that Allah has a shin (sāq)? All you have is His statement: “on the Day when a shin is laid bare” (68:42). Yet the Companions differed over the verse’s meaning: is what is intended the unveiling of severe hardship,