and agree with the position of those who affirm the divine attributes. They show that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not object to what the People of the Book reported concerning the attributes that the deniers call corporealism and likening Allah to creation. Rather, he objected to the deficiencies and faults they attributed to Allah Most High.

For this reason, it has not been transmitted from any of the Companions, those who followed them in righteousness, or the leading scholars of the Muslims that they censured the People of the Book on the grounds invoked by those who deny the divine attributes. Nor do they mention the term “corporealism” or similar expressions introduced by later innovators, whether approvingly or disapprovingly. They do not say, as the deniers do, that the Torah likens Allah to creation. Ibn Sīnā, for example, said: “The Hebrew book, from beginning to end, is nothing but likening Allah to creation.”

He should therefore be asked: “What do you mean by calling it a likening of Allah to creation? Do you mean that it states that the Lord’s attributes are like the attributes of His servants? Or that it affirms attributes, while created beings are described by attributes that relate to them as those divine attributes relate to Allah?”

If you mean the first, this is a false allegation against the Torah. It does not state that His attributes are like those of His servants; rather, it denies that anything is like Allah.

If you mean the second, this is something neither you nor anyone else can avoid. You and those like you say, “Allah exists,” while also saying, “Whatever exists is either necessary or contingent.” And you say—you say that He is intellect, the subject of intellection, and the object of intellection, while also saying that the designation “intellect” applies to the ten intellects. You also say, “He is a cause of the world,” even as