All people are agreed that the word khullah, with the khāʾ pronounced with ḍamma, belongs uniquely to Abraham; that Moses is the one to whom God spoke; that Abraham is God’s khalīl; and that Jesus is the Spirit of God. If, however, “God’s khalīl” merely meant “one who is poor before God,” what distinction would Abraham enjoy thereby, since every human being is poor before God?
It is truly astonishing that they did not go on to claim, when the people say “Moses is Kalīm Allāh,” that it means “he is God’s wounded one,” deriving it from the word kalm (wound) or some other meaning. What held them back from this but the Almighty’s statement, “Indeed, I have chosen you above all people with My messages and with My speech” (7:144)? Their ingenuity found no way around it.
Much the same is their treatment of the verse, “And Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray” (20:121). They insist it means that he merely belched after eating from the tree, citing the Arab expression ghawiya al-faṣīl when a weanling camel is bloated. They parade the forms ghawā, yaghwā and ghawā, yaghwī (with a kasra on the wāw) for indigestion—and had they discovered a similar pretext in the words “Adam disobeyed,” they would have embraced it as well.
Refutation of Those Who Allegorically Interpret istiwāʾ
Concerning the verse, “The All-Merciful rose over the Throne” (20:5), they maintain that istawā means “He took dominion.” Yet the Arabic language knows no expression such as istawaytu ʿalā al-dār, meaning “I seized control of the house.” In this context istawā signifies only “settled,” exactly as God says, “When you and those with you are settled (istawayta) upon the Ark” (23:28). A man might also say to his companion when he sees him fidgeting, “istaw”—that is, “Settle down.”
As for His words, “Then He turned toward the heaven” (2:29), the intent is that He directed Himself to it and purposed it. Anyone who is occupied with one matter, then leaves it—whether finished or not—and turns to something else has, in Arabic, “istawā toward” that other thing.
Such is the school of these people: they interpret the Book according to their own opinions, following premises they themselves have laid down.
Refutation of Those Who Allegorically Interpret the Attribute of the Fingers
As for the ḥadīth of the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, they challenge it whenever they can detect even the slightest linguistic loophole