that a uniquely distinctive attribute exists, can it be apprehended? Imām al-Haramayn said that it cannot be apprehended at all. Others said that it can be apprehended. Dirār ibn ‘Amr said that it is apprehended through a sixth sense when He is seen. The question itself perplexes the intellect, as does conceiving of this uniquely distinctive attribute.

[Ibn Taymiyya’s commentary on al-Shahrastānī’s remarks]

The response is:

This and similar arguments are advanced in this context by those who distinguish some attributes from others, just as they distinguish an attribute from a magnitude. Anyone who reflects on this will recognize that such a distinction cannot be made.

This can be shown in several ways:

[The first argument]

What he has mentioned contains no answer—no answer to the challenge to the consistency of his position or to the counterargument. For they countered his position by affirming multiple attributes, whether eight, more, or fewer. The attributes’ having a particular number is like the essence’s having a particular magnitude. If someone does not call the former a number, his opponent does not call the latter a magnitude. The discussion concerns rational meanings, not verbal designations. As for anything beyond that, whether one denies its existence or denies