Consider: if someone were to say, “A head unlike other heads,” by analogy with our statement, “A hand unlike other hands,” would the argument against him not be precisely what we have said concerning a limit—that since the hand is mentioned, it must be affirmed, whereas since a head is not mentioned, it may not be affirmed?’”

I say: Among those who denied that Allah has a limit was Abū al-Hārith. Al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā also used to deny it, but later came to affirm it. The same was true of the term “direction.” He said in his book Refuting Figurative Interpretations of the Reports Concerning the Divine Attributes, in his discussion of the hadith of al-‘Abbās ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib