in accordance with His command, without assigning any description or limit beyond what He has used to describe Himself: All-Hearing, All-Seeing. He has always been One who speaks, All-Knowing and All-Forgiving, the Knower of the unseen and the seen, the Knower of all hidden things. These are attributes with which He has described Himself; they must neither be denied nor rejected. He is above the Throne, without limit, as He said: ‘Then He rose over the Throne,’ however He wills. The will belongs to Him, mighty and majestic, and His is the power:

‘There is nothing like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing’ (11) [al-Shūrā 11].

He is the Creator of all things, and He is as He has described Himself: All-Hearing, All-Seeing, without limit or measure. Consider Abraham’s words to his father:

‘O my father, why do you worship that which neither hears nor sees?’ [Maryam 42]

Thus it is established that Allah is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. His attributes are His own. We do not go beyond the Quran, hadith and transmitted reports. Allah laughs, and how this is is not known except through believing the Messenger, peace be upon him, and affirming the Quran. Those who describe Him cannot fully describe Him, and no one can delimit Him. Exalted is Allah above what the Jahmiyyah and those who liken Him to creation say.

Abū ‘Abd Allāh said to me: ‘Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm said to me, when he read