“The one who likens Allah to creation is he who says, ‘His sight is like my sight, His hand like my hand, and His foot like my foot.’ Whoever says this has likened Allah to His creation,” as Ishāq and Abū Nuʿaym also said.

The discerning speculative theologians hold that this similarity, which amounts to equivalence, does not consist in sharing some attributes, but in sharing all the essential attributes by virtue of which either can take the place of the other.

As for likening in ordinary linguistic usage, the term may be used without any equivalence in actual nature. Thus, an image drawn on a wall is said to resemble an animal, and one says, “This resembles that in such-and-such respects,” even though their actual natures differ.