Those people said, “There is no attribute,” whereas these speak of a face as in “the face of the day,” “the aspect of a matter,” or “the point of an account”; an eye as in the expression “the eye of the goods”; hearing like “the ear of a wall”; sight as when two walls are said to “face one another”; a hand in the sense of favor and giving; fingers as in their saying, “Khurāsān is between the ruler’s two fingers”; two feet as in their saying, “I have placed the dispute beneath my feet”; and a grasp as in the expression, “So-and-so is in my grasp,” meaning, “I control his affairs.” He also said: “The Footstool is knowledge, and the Throne is sovereignty; laughter and pleasure; rising over and mastery; descent is acceptance, and hastening is likewise.”

They drew comparisons in one respect and denied in another. They opposed the early generations and went beyond the apparent meaning, thereby rejecting the foundation. They affirmed nothing and left nothing existing. They did not distinguish between interpretation and expressing something in different languages. Thus they said, “We do not interpret these expressions; we leave them in Arabic as they have come down,” even though they had already imposed those pernicious interpretations upon them. Through this deception, they intended to leave ordinary Muslims further removed from these attributes and less able to approach them, so that they would be more uneasy at their mention and more averse to