his statement when posing the objection: “The ambiguous passages in the Quran indicating resemblance between Allah and creation and predestination are no fewer, nor any weaker as evidence, than the verses indicating bodily resurrection. Yet you permit nonliteral interpretations of those verses; why, then, do you not also permit nonliteral interpretations of the verses cited here?”

What he says here is precisely what those who affirm the divine attributes say concerning the texts on those attributes. Whoever knows and reflects upon what the Quran and Sunnah convey concerning them necessarily recognizes the falsity of such interpretations and knows that the messengers described the Lord in terms incompatible with the position of those who deny His attributes.

He himself replied to the philosophers when they said to him, “In the Book of Allah Most High there are many verses indicating resemblance between Allah and creation and predestination, and you have interpreted them nonliterally.” He said: “We have not relied on the apparent meanings of verses and reports such that we would be obliged to answer this objection. Rather, we have relied on what is necessarily known to belong to the religion of the prophets. No one has claimed to know their religion