the truth and its opposite. As for stating what apparently indicates the opposite of the truth without stating the truth itself, this is impossible for someone whose purpose is to guide people. If this were permissible, it would furnish these heretics with an argument against them concerning resurrection—indeed, concerning religious laws as well. If they answer the heretics concerning resurrection by saying, “We know with inescapable certainty from the Messenger’s reports that bodies will be resurrected, so we need not infer this from the wording of revelation, lest reinterpretation undermine its evidential force,” then this very same answer is available to those who affirm the attributes. They say:
“We know with inescapable certainty that the affirmation of the attributes is among the matters taught by the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. He informed the community that their Lord, whom they worship, is above the world; that He is All-Knowing, All-Powerful, and Merciful; and that He possesses knowledge, power, mercy, and other such attributes.”
The knowledge that the attributes are affirmed in the words of Allah and His Messenger, gained through reflection upon the divine texts, is inescapably certain and admits of no doubt. It is firmer than the knowledge that the right of pre-emption is established, that a grandmother inherits, that a woman may not be married together with her paternal or maternal aunt, or that prostration for forgetfulness is prescribed in prayer, and other such rulings known to the learned rather than the general public. For the affirmation of Allah Most High’s exaltedness, His attributes, and His names in the divine Books belongs to the common knowledge shared by the learned and the general public, just like their knowledge of the number of circuits around the House and between al-Safā and al-Marwah, and other manifest religious observances handed down through mass transmission.
You will find no one who denies the attributes relying on revelation for this position, claiming that the foundation of his belief comes from the Book and the sunnah, or transmitting his position from any of the Companions, those who followed them in righteousness, or the leading Muslim scholars renowned for knowledge and religious devotion. Rather, he transmits his position of denial