Thus Allah, exalted is He, sometimes refers to Himself in the singular—whether the pronoun is expressed or implicit—and at other times in the plural, as in: “Indeed, We have granted you a clear conquest” (Q 48:1) and many similar verses. Never, however, does He speak of Himself in the dual form. The plural conveys the majesty that is His due and can allude to the diversity of His names and attributes, whereas the dual merely denotes a limited number, and He is far above any such limitation.

Had He said, “What kept you from prostrating to that which My hand created,” it would have resembled, “from what Our hands have fashioned” (Q 36:71) and would have paralleled the phrases, “in His hand is the dominion” (Q 67:1) and “in Your hand is all good” (Q 3:26). If instead He had said in the singular, “I created with My hand,” the wording would already differ; how emphatic, then, when He actually declares, “I created with My two hands,” employing the dual.

To this must be added the abundant—indeed, mass-transmitted (mutawātir)—hadith reports, together with the consensus of the early generations of the ummah, all of which affirm what the Quran itself affirms. This has been laid out at length elsewhere, for example in the Prophet’s saying: “The just will be with Allah on pulpits of light …”