those who say this, while some also say that those firmly grounded in knowledge do know the interpretation. The interpretation whose knowledge is denied to them is different from that whose knowledge is affirmed for them. Yet none of the early generations is known to have understood this interpretation, which Allah alone knows, as denying that the verses and hadiths signify the attributes they indicate, affirming interpretations contrary to their meanings, and claiming that Allah alone knows those interpretations. Indeed, none of the early generations is known to have used the word “interpretation” to mean diverting an expression from its more likely meaning to a less likely one. Since this was not what “interpretation” meant to them, their statement, “No one knows its interpretation except Allah,” could not have meant what al-Rāzī has attributed to them.

Some statements of those early scholars who said, “No one knows its interpretation except Allah,” have already been cited. For them, interpretation meant what it means in His saying, Most High:

“Are they waiting for anything but its fulfilment? On the Day its fulfilment comes” [al-Aʿrāf 53]

And His saying, Most High:

“Rather, they have denied what they cannot encompass in knowledge and whose fulfilment has not yet come to them.” [Yūnus 39]

This includes the manner of the attributes of the Lord, Most High, as expressed in their saying, “Istiwā (rising above) is known, but its manner is unknown,” or in other statements they made.