with My two Hands.”
[Sād: 75]

And that He has two Eyes, without specifying how, as He said:

“Sailing under Our Eyes.”
[al-Qamar: 15]

He went on to say:

“In matters over which we differ, we rely on the Book of Allah, the Sunnah of His Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—the consensus of the Muslims, and whatever is of like import. We introduce no innovation into Allah’s religion for which He has given no permission, nor do we say about Allah what we do not know. We affirm that Allah will come on the Day of Resurrection, as He said:

‘And your Lord comes, and the angels, rank upon rank.’
[al-Fajr: 22]

And that Allah draws near to His servants however He wills, as He said:

‘And We are closer to him than his jugular vein.’
[Qāf: 16]

And as He said:

‘Then he drew near and descended, until he was two bow-lengths away or nearer.’
[al-Najm: 8–9]”

[Ibn Taymiyyah’s Commentary]

Through these statements and others like them in his books and those of the leading scholars among his followers, they make clear that, in the matters of fundamental belief over which people have disputed, they hold fast to scripture, the Sunnah, and consensus. Their religion consists in adhering to the Book and the Sunnah, and to what has been transmitted from the Companions, the Successors, and the Imams of hadith. They then singled out Imam Ahmad as one whom they followed and agreed with, because of the Sunnah he made manifest through the ordeal he underwent.

How far removed this is from the position of those who do not regard the Book, the Sunnah, and consensus as a means of knowing Allah’s attributes and other such matters of fundamental belief! Further still is the position of those who claim that their own reason and opinions take precedence over what the Book and the Sunnah indicate and what the early Imams upheld, and who say: “When the Quran conflicts with our reason, we give our reason precedence over the Quran.”