For when we examine ourselves, we find that whenever we are occupied with bringing one particular thing to mind, we cannot at that moment bring another to mind. Yet we believe that He, exalted and holy is He, knows infinitely many things in detail, without any confusion or ambiguity arising in His knowledge. Thus, His knowing all things is contrary to the dictates of mental conception and imagination.”

This may be addressed in several ways. First: what this statement amounts to—that Allah’s knowledge is neither of the same kind as our knowledge nor like it, and that we cannot know as Allah Most High knows—is among the clearest and most evident matters to learned and ordinary people alike. Just as no created being thinks that his own essence is like Allah’s essence, no one thinks that his knowledge is like Allah’s knowledge. Everyone knows that Allah is greater and more majestic than anything they know or say about Him. Likewise, His knowledge, power, and all His other attributes are greater and more majestic than for the true nature of His knowledge to be known or described. No human being has ever said that Allah’s knowledge is like ours, nor has anyone conceived or imagined this. What, then, is there in this that runs counter to the dictates of mental conception