or is what is meant (1) that the Lord, exalted is He, will unveil His shin? (2) No disagreement is recorded from the Companions or the Successors on whether something mentioned elsewhere is to be counted among the divine attributes—apart from this single instance. Moreover, nothing in the outward wording of the Quran indicates (3) that the shin is an attribute of Allah, for He, glorified be He, did not ascribe it to Himself; He mentioned it absolutely, without annexation and in an indefinite form. Those who do affirm it as an attribute—like the two hands or the finger—did not derive that from the Quranic wording itself; rather, they relied on the ḥadīth of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, unanimously authenticated, the long narration concerning intercession, in which it is said: “Then the Lord will reveal His shin, and they will fall prostrate before Him.” (4)

Whoever understands the verse in this way maintains that the Almighty’s words, “On the Day when a shin is laid bare and they are called to prostrate” (Q 68:42), accord precisely with the Prophet’s statement, “Then He will reveal His shin and they will fall prostrate before Him.” The indefiniteness of the word is for the purpose of magnification and exaltation, as though He were saying: a mighty shin will be uncovered—so great and sublime that it has no equal, counterpart, or likeness.

They add that construing the verse as referring to hardship is untenable, for in the Arabs’ idiom one would say, “the hardship was lifted” (5), not “it was lifted from” (6). Allah the Exalted says, “But when We removed the punishment from them” (43:49), and He says, “Even if We had mercy on them and removed what harm they had” (23:76). Thus it is the punishment or hardship itself that is removed, not something from which it is removed.