is not conclusive is disputed by the leading scholars of the early generations, scholars of hadith, jurisprudence, and Sufism, and groups of speculative theologians, both among his own followers and others. For they hold that the scriptural texts provide conclusive evidence on this matter. As for the transmitted reports, most of his followers hold that, when received with acceptance, they yield certain knowledge, as previously mentioned in their account of this position from the scholar Abū Ishāq. This is also what Abū Bakr ibn Fūrak stated, and it is the purport of what al-Ashʿarī related in his books from the adherents of the Sunnah and hadith. He stated that this was his own position and that believing what these reports convey is obligatory.

If He may possess attributes that cannot be known through reason alone, and many who affirm these attributes conveyed through transmitted reports—including leading scholars of his own school, Hanbalī scholars, and others—affirm things whose meaning or reality they do not know, without affirming anything they know to be impossible, then the distinction made in the earlier answer becomes clear: the distinction between what is known to be impossible—namely, the existence of a being neither inside the world nor outside it—and what has an unknown reality, such as these attributes according to those scholars.

The thirty-sixth point:

The attributes they affirmed are taught in the Quran and Sunnah and agreed upon by the early generations of the Muslim community and its leading scholars.

Some groups may say:

“Reason also requires the affirmation of these attributes in principle, even if it does not establish them in detail, just as, with regard to His being above, one knows that He is above, but does not know