And although they have offered that interpretation, they have done so only rarely; their statements do not compare with those supporting this interpretation in either number or strength. How, then, can what is established through mass-transmitted reports from scholars of Quranic interpretation and the names of Allah Most High—scholars well versed in Arabic—be further removed from Arabic usage than that other interpretation? No one who duly appreciates the stature of the early Muslim generations would say this. And how could it be so if this is the very interpretation reported with a chain of transmission from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace?

As for the anthropomorphists’ citing it in support of corporeality, this is well known among the speculative theologians. Indeed, Abū al-Hasan al-Ashʿarī mentioned it in his account of the doctrines of those who affirm corporeality. Here is what al-Ashʿarī reported in his Book of Doctrines:

“Dāwūd al-Jawāribī and Muqātil ibn Sulaymān said that Allah is a body, and that He is a bodily frame in human form, consisting of flesh, blood, hair, and bone, with limbs and organs: a hand, a foot, a tongue, a head, and two eyes; and yet, despite