He said: “Ahmad took contextual indications into account in cases such as this. Concerning His words, ‘There is no private conversation among three but He is their fourth’ [al-Mujādilah 7], he said: ‘What is meant is Allah’s knowledge, for Allah began the verse with knowledge and ended it with knowledge.’”

It might be said that one who affirms this as an attribute needs to establish it by inference, arguing that janb means a side or region—that is, a direction. Thus, the meaning would be “for my neglect regarding Allah’s direction, side, and region,” just as you might say, “I live at Allah’s side, beside Him, and in His direction.” Likewise, one says, “You have turned away from my side, my flank, and my direction,” and “He leans on his sides.” They would then say: “Such expressions are used only of something with a side that constitutes its boundary and endpoint. This therefore implies that He has a side that constitutes His boundary and endpoint.”

Similarly, concerning His words, “Wherever you turn, there is the Face” [al-Baqarah 115], it might be said that even if the intended meaning is the direction of prayer appointed by Allah, as Mujāhid, al-Shāfi‘ī, and others have said, because what