make categorical judgments in either denial or affirmation except on the basis of evidence that warrants certainty. When evidence favors one of the two alternatives, we explain which is more likely.” This is the soundest approach.

Many people may suppose certain hadiths to be authentic, then either interpret them nonliterally or say that they are like other reports, whereas the leading hadith scholars regard them as false.

Some reports have an apparent meaning that makes their intended sense clear, requiring no evidence to divert them from that apparent meaning. Yet some people think they require reinterpretation, as in the saying:

“The Black Stone is Allah’s right hand on earth. Whoever shakes hands with it and kisses it, it is as though he had shaken hands with Allah and kissed His right hand.”

Even if this report were authentically established from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), its apparent meaning would not be that the Stone is an attribute of Allah. Rather, it would explicitly indicate that it is not an attribute of Allah, because the words “Allah’s right hand on earth” qualify it with “on earth,” and because it says, “Whoever shakes hands with it, it is as though he had shaken hands with Allah.” The thing being likened is not the thing to which it is likened. Since it explicitly indicates that the Stone is not an attribute of Allah, it would require no reinterpretation contrary to its apparent meaning. There are many similar instances in which the verse