of attributes, and he makes their only import the likening of God to created things. In this way he combines, with respect to God and His words, both negation (taʿṭīl) and anthropomorphic assimilation (tamthīl), thereby deviating in matters of His Names and His revealed signs.

[Clarification regarding the attributes of “istiwāʾ” (establishment) and “ʿulū” (exaltation)]
By way of example: every scriptural text affirms that the Deity is exalted, high above the creation, and that He is established upon the Throne. His loftiness and separateness from the creatures are known by sound reason consonant with revelation, whereas knowledge of His establishment upon the Throne comes solely through revelation. Nowhere in the Qur’an or the Sunnah is He described as being neither inside the universe nor outside it, neither separate from it nor joined to it.

[The attribute of istiwāʾ]
The fanciful thinker supposes that if God is described as being established upon the Throne, His establishment must resemble a human’s sitting upon the decks of ships or the backs of cattle, as in His saying: “He has made for you, out of the ships and the cattle, that on which you ride, so that you may sit balanced upon their backs” (Q 43:12-13). He therefore imagines that if God were established upon the Throne He would need it just as the rider needs the ship or the beast: were the vessel to split, the rider would tumble; were the animal to stumble, the rider would fall. Thus, analogizing