among the Ash'arī imams. This is also the approach of Muhammad ibn Karrām and his followers, and of most scholars of hadith, jurisprudence, and Sufism. It was to this approach that Judge Abū Ya'lā and others like him returned.

However, a group of those who affirm the attributes—among the Ash'arīs and those followers of Ahmad and others who agree with them—consider being above to be an attribute known through revelation, like the Face, the two Hands, and similar attributes. They hold that, when they affirm it, they do so solely because revelation has conveyed it. Hence, some of them deny it and interpret its scriptural texts figuratively or turn away from them, just as they do with the texts concerning the Face and the Hand.

Anyone who follows this approach refutes the arguments he described as negating this attribute, just as he refutes the arguments used to deny the attributes of rising above, the Face, and the two Hands. He explains that affirming it entails nothing objectionable, just as he says concerning rising above, the Face, the Hand, and similar attributes known through revelation.

Their arguments are stronger than those of the people who deny the attributes known through revelation, both in transmitted evidence and in reason. If it is said that their arguments contain contradictions, or that they make unintelligible assertions, the arguments of the deniers contain still more contradictions and unintelligible assertions. Compared with the deniers, they therefore have a fuller understanding of rational and transmitted evidence. Compared, however, with the early generations and the imams who affirm the attributes, their contradictions and unintelligible assertions become apparent in a way that demonstrates the superiority of the approach of the early generations and the imams over theirs, and places the deniers’ opposition to them in relation to this.

This makes clear the truth from which no one who understands it turns away. There is no power or strength except through Allah.

Those who establish through reason that Allah is above have several approaches. Among them is their statement that knowledge of this is self-evident and firmly rooted in the innate nature of Adam’s descendants.