and His words, “Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him” (Q 98:8), as well as His words, “Then He rose over the Throne” (Q 7:54), are all to be taken according to their apparent sense. That apparent sense, however, does not imply a rising like the rising of a created being, nor a love like their love, nor a pleasure like their pleasure.

If the listener supposes that the plain sense of these attributes matches the attributes of creatures, he will be forced to say that none of that plain sense is intended. But if he believes that their evident meaning is only what befits the Creator and is unique to Him, he has no basis for rejecting that meaning or claiming that it is not intended unless he can produce evidence that warrants such rejection. Neither reason nor revelation offers any proof that would negate these attributes except the very same line of argument that would negate all the other attributes, so the discussion about them is one and the same.

To clarify: Some of our attributes are concrete, corporeal parts, such as the face and the hand; others are qualities and states that inhere in us, such as hearing, sight, speech, knowledge, and power.

Likewise, it is well known that when the Lord described Himself as Living, Knowing, and Powerful, the Muslims did not say that the apparent sense of these terms is not intended, for the meaning of that with