and misguidance much that would take a long time to describe. It will also become clear to him that their misguidance in rational matters is of the same kind as their misguidance concerning revelation, and that they are as the Most High described the inhabitants of the Fire:

“And they will say, ‘If only we had listened or reasoned, we would not be among the companions of the Blaze.’”
[al-Mulk: 10]

Among the foundations of religious deviation and the denial of divine attributes—which they called monotheism—was their avoidance of any multiplicity in the attributes of the true One, or in His names and speech. Yet there is nothing objectionable in this multiplicity; rather, it is the truth that cannot be denied.

Anyone who understands this will find the difficulties raised by certain philosophers’ claims resolved: that only one can proceed from the one, and that species are composed of genera and differentiae. The hypothetical entity from which these realities are composed is likewise something posited in the mind, with no reality outside it. The same applies to their assertion that the one cannot be both an agent and a recipient, and to similar claims: what they designate by the term “one” is a “one” posited in the mind, with no external reality.

[Refuting their claim that the Quran does not indicate Allah’s highness and attributes, on several grounds]

If it is said that the Quran does not indicate Allah’s highness and attributes, whether by denying or affirming them, this too is false, and its falsity is evident on several grounds:

[The first ground]

Knowing that the scriptural texts indicate Allah’s highness and attributes is self-evident. Challenging this is therefore akin to challenging what the Quran indicates concerning the creation of the heavens and the earth, the bliss of Paradise, and the Fire.

There is no doubt that the Quran and hadith indicate these matters more clearly than they indicate the Balance, intercession, and the Cistern