the istiwāʾ is known, while its manner remains unknowable. Similar statements are frequent in the words of the early generations and the leading imāms: they deny that servants can grasp how Allah’s attributes truly are, insisting that no one knows how Allah is save Allah Himself—no one comprehends His reality but Him. The Prophet ﷺ said, “I cannot enumerate Your praise; You are as You have praised Yourself,” a report found in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim and elsewhere. In another ḥadīth he prayed, “O Allah, I ask You by every name that is Yours: one by which You have named Yourself, revealed in Your Book, taught to any of Your creation, or…”