has never been maintained by anyone. You have stated this in your books and acknowledged that no rational person has ever asserted likeness in this sense. Since no one has asserted this, it cannot be taken as the belief of those who invoke Allah and raise their hands to Him, when it is known that neither those who liken Allah to His creation nor anyone else has asserted it.

If, however, he means that they affirm resemblance in certain respects, then this is true. He himself mentioned in his Nihāyah that Muslims unanimously agree on resemblance in certain respects, for this is something that cannot be disputed, as we quoted from him earlier. Accordingly, the belief held by human beings, on which they base their raising their hands to Allah in supplication, is fundamentally sound, not false.

Yet it is known that people here occupy two opposite extremes. Some go to excess in affirming Allah’s attributes, to the point of asserting that Allah is like His creation in certain matters. Others go to excess in denying His attributes, to the point of likening Him only to the nonexistent and the lifeless. Nevertheless, the belief that prompts people to raise their hands need not involve false likening, since raising one’s hands to Allah is not confined to those who hold such views.

Thus, the basis on which people raise their hands to Allah cannot be false in every case. If their basis is not false in every case, but is sound in some cases, then it is established that hands are raised to Allah and that a person doing so may hold a sound belief.