If they claim that this is only figurative language, they are asked: “What do you say about someone who supplicates, ‘May Allah forgive you, pardon you, and forbear with you’? Is that metaphor or reality?”

If they answer, “It is metaphor,” then they must also affirm that, in truth, Allah never forgives, never pardons, and never shows forbearance to anyone—an assertion they will never dare make.

If, however, they concede that it is real, then what is affirmed for the verb must likewise be affirmed for the verbal noun: we say, “Allah forgave with forgiveness, pardoned with pardon, and forbore with forbearance.” It is inconceivable that one should be literal while the other is merely figurative.

Allah, exalted is He, says, “Indeed My devising is firm” (Q 7:183). The whole community agrees that power and might belong to Allah alone, and ḥawl here means stratagem.

They further contend that the two divine names “All-Hearing” (al-Samīʿ) and “All-Seeing” (al-Baṣīr) carry no meaning beyond that of “All-Knowing” (al-ʿAlīm), and that the first contains nothing not already found in the second.

Yet Allah heard the Jews when they said, “Allah is poor while we are rich” (Q 3:181); He heard it at the very moment they uttered it, though He knew it before they spoke. Would anyone dare claim that He heard it before they had spoken?

Likewise, concerning the woman who disputed about her husband, “Allah has surely heard the plea of the one who argues with you” (Q 58:1); He heard her conversation with the Prophet—blessings and peace be upon him—while she was disputing and conversing with him, though He already knew of it beforehand. Who would claim that Allah heard it before it even existed?

Since that claim is impossible, it is clear that “All-Hearing” conveys a meaning distinct from “All-Knowing.” Allah says, “Indeed I am with you both; I hear and I see” (Q 20:46).