so that one may say: if it is established that he is in the essential image, then all the more must he be in the image with respect to attributes, names, and acts; or some other explanation may be offered.

Our purpose here is only to invalidate every interpretation that distorts words from their proper places, introduces deviation into their interpretation, and rejects the intended meaning of the text. What is challenged, then, is their denial of the truth, not the truth they intended to affirm. For such is the case with those who distort the texts concerning the attributes: if they interpret the hadith as referring to something that is true in reality, we do not dispute that valid meaning, nor that the hadith indicates it, if it admits of such a reading. In this discussion, we may not even be examining whether or not the hadith indicates that meaning. Rather, we dispute with them over