the mainstays of religion are recognizing what is right and rejecting what is wrong. Whatever knowledge encompasses, in which hearts find reassurance, whose basis is mentioned in the Book and Sunnah, and whose knowledge the Muslim community has inherited—do not fear any blame for mentioning it and describing your Lord as He has described Himself. Nor presume to assign a measure to what has been described to you.

Whatever your soul finds objectionable concerning your Lord’s attributes, and which you find mentioned neither in your Lord’s Book nor in reports from your Prophet, do not strive to fathom it with your intellect or describe it with your tongue. Remain silent about it, just as the Lord has remained silent about it concerning Himself. For striving to know what He has not described of Himself is like denying what He has described. Just as you regard as grave the deniers’ rejection of what He has described of Himself, likewise regard as grave the presumptuous descriptions people give of what He has not described.

By Allah, rare indeed are those Muslims who recognize what is right, through whose recognition it becomes known, and who reject what is wrong, through whose rejection it is repudiated. They hear the attributes with which Allah has described Himself in His Book, and the corresponding reports that reach them from His Prophet. No Muslim’s heart is sickened by the Lord’s mention and naming of these attributes, nor is describing His measure