'Iyād, Ibn Qutaybah, and several others among the early generations.

A poet said:

How can you rightly be called wise,
when you follow every whim?

Another said:

Begin with yourself: restrain it from its waywardness;
when it desists, then you are wise.

This meaning is found in all languages, but every nation has wisdom suited to it, just as every nation has a religion. The Greeks have what they call wisdom, as do the Indians. The wisdom of the followers of revealed religions, however, is far loftier.

Among the arguments these people advanced was their statement:

“Reason can apprehend only what it encompasses and comprehends fully. Yet reason can neither apprehend nor encompass the Creator, glorified and exalted is He.”

For Allah Most High says:

“They encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He wills.”

And He says:

“They do not encompass Him in knowledge.”

Dhū al-Nūn al-Misrī said:

“Reason is incapable and points only to what is incapable. As for divine lordship, reason has no means of apprehending its nature. There is only contentment, submission, faith, and affirmation.”

But these words, and others like them, imply only that reason cannot apprehend His ultimate nature and true reality. This is the correct position held by the vast majority of scholars. Only certain groups among the speculative theologians of the Mu'tazilah and those who agreed with them disputed this.

This is why the early generations and the leading scholars would state that they did not know the manner of His attributes, as in their saying:

“Rising above is known, but its manner is unknown.”

This unknown manner is