his book The Proof in Clarifying the Path.

Shaykh al-Islām Abū ‘Uthmān Ismā‘īl ibn ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-Sābūnī said in his well-known statement of creed:

“A distinguishing sign of the people of innovation is their intense hostility toward those who transmit the reports of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, their contempt for them, and their calling them Hashwiyya, ignoramuses, literalists, and those who liken Allah to His creation. They believe that the reports of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, have nothing to do with knowledge. Rather, they regard as knowledge what Satan casts into their minds: the conclusions of their corrupt reasoning, the whisperings of their darkened breasts, the passing thoughts of their barren hearts devoid of goodness, and their arguments—or rather, their specious, untenable, and false objections.

“Those are the ones whom Allah has cursed, so He made them deaf and blinded their sight. (23)” [Muhammad: 23]

“Whomever Allah disgraces, none can honour. Indeed, Allah does whatever He wills. (18)” [al-Hajj: 18]”

Had al-Rāzī, instead of ‘those who liken Allah to His creation,’ said ‘those who affirm the attributes conveyed in revelation and the attributes pertaining to His very Self,’ or ‘those who affirm His being above,’ or ‘those who affirm the direction above,’ then that would have reflected