the servant’s nonphysical attributes are of the same kind as Allah’s attributes, such that their essential realities are of the same kind, or it does not entail this, but instead entails a resemblance between them despite the distinctness of their essential realities.

If the hadith entails the former, then it explicitly states that Allah has an equal, which is false. Moreover, this is rationally impossible: when two things are identical in their essential nature, whatever is possible for one is possible for the other, whatever is necessary for one is necessary for the other, and whatever is impossible for one is impossible for the other. The created being must be nonexistent, originated, dependent, and contingent, whereas the Creator must be eternal, necessarily existent, and self-sufficient. The very same thing would therefore have to be both necessary and contingent, self-sufficient and dependent, existent and nonexistent. This combines two contradictories. Thus, it is established that the hadith cannot be interpreted in this way.