And the best informed among them, such as al-Māzirī, say: “Allah has no character trait that a servant may acquire.” It is therefore all the more fitting and appropriate that Allah Himself should be able to create something that resembles Him in certain respects. Such resemblance would thus arise through Allah Most High’s act of creation. As for the character traits and actions that correspond to and resemble the meanings of His names, and which He loves, these are among the things He has commanded. To Him, glorified be He, belong creation and command.

The sixth argument: It may be said that the unacceptable implication they sought to avoid by interpreting “image” in the hadith as an attribute, or as a conceptual or spiritual image, and the like, has its counterpart in what they themselves affirm. If such an implication follows necessarily on either interpretation, it would not be permissible to abandon what the hadith entails and means on that account; nor would it be