Third Principle – Declaring that the apparent sense of the texts on the Divine attributes is, or is not, what is meant requires further clarification.
Third Principle – Should someone say, “The apparent meaning of the texts is intended,” or, “Their apparent meaning is not intended,” we reply: the term “apparent” (ẓāhir) is itself ambiguous and used in different ways. If the speaker imagines that the apparent sense entails an equation with the attributes of created beings, or anything that is their exclusive province, then without question that sense is not intended.
Yet the early generations (Salaf) and the leading scholars never called such a sense “apparent,” nor would they allow that the apparent purport of the Qur’an and the Sunnah is disbelief and falsehood. Exalted and all-wise is Allah; it is inconceivable that His own speech, in which He described Himself, should yield at first glance nothing but unbelief and misguidance.
The mistake of those who claim that the texts’ apparent sense necessitates anthropomorphic likening (tashbīh):
Those who take their apparent sense in this way err in two respects:
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At times they treat a corrupt interpretation as the “apparent meaning” of the wording, and then insist on a figurative reading that departs from that supposed apparent sense—even though no such departure is required.
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At other times they reject the true meaning that is in fact the apparent sense of the words, because they imagine it to be false.
Examples
The first error appears in their understanding of the divine saying in the ḥadīth: “My servant, I was hungry and you did not feed Me…,” and in another report: “The Black Stone is the right hand of Allah on earth,