Allah has a limit. Their strongest evidence for this was a report from Ibn al-Mubārak. Alī ibn al-Hasan ibn Shaqīq said: ‘I asked Ibn al-Mubārak: “Do we know Allah as having a limit, or affirm Him as having a limit?” He replied: “Yes, with a limit.”’ They made this a foundation in this matter and added a limit to His attributes. Exalted is Allah above that!

These people—may Allah grant us and them well-being—must understand that Allah’s attributes are to be taken only from the Book of Allah Most High or the words of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, not from the statements of any person whatsoever, however high or low his standing, and whether he lived earlier or later. For these attributes cannot be ascertained through analogy and independent reasoning, such that there would be room for someone to offer an opinion or a thinker to exercise his judgment. Moreover, this report from Ibn al-Mubārak has been transmitted to us with the wording that he was asked: ‘Do we know Allah in earnest (bi-jidd)?’ He replied: ‘Yes, in earnest (bi-jidd)’—with the letter jīm, not hā.”

He said: “Some of them maintained that one may say that He has a limit unlike other limits, just as you say, ‘A hand unlike other hands.’ Such a person should be told: ‘What obliged us to say, “A hand unlike other hands,” is that the hand is mentioned in the Quran and the Sunnah; it must therefore be accepted and cannot be rejected. But where is a limit mentioned in the Book or the Sunnah, such that we should say, “A limit unlike other limits,” just as we say, “A hand unlike other hands”?