to a donkey at times and to a dog at others.

As for rational analogies—that is, illustrative comparisons, such as those termed logical syllogisms, rational demonstrations, and the like—the early generations of the Muslim community and its imams employed, with respect to Allah, glorified and exalted be He, the required kind: those involving negation and affirmation through a fortiori reasoning. For Allah Most High and anything other than Him cannot be alike in any respect, whether in what is negated or what is affirmed. Rather, whatever