the position of the philosophers. He said:

“If it is asked: What do you say about the attribute of corporeality? Is it among the attributes that the revealed Law has explicitly [negated with regard to the Creator? Or is it among those on which it remains silent?

We reply: It is clear from the revealed Law] that it is among the attributes on which it remains silent. Indeed, the revealed Law comes closer to explicitly affirming it than to negating it. For the revealed Law explicitly mentions the Face and the two Hands in several verses of the Noble Book. These verses may give the impression that corporeality is among the attributes in which the Creator surpasses created beings, just as He surpasses them in power, will, and other attributes shared by the Creator and created beings, [except that] they exist more perfectly in the Creator. For this reason, many Muslims have come to believe that the Creator is a body unlike all other bodies. This is the position of the Hanbalīs and many of their followers.

In my view, what is required concerning this attribute is to follow the approach of the revealed Law, neither explicitly negating nor affirming it. Anyone among the general public who asks about it should be answered with the words of the Exalted:

‘There is not, like Him,