Chapter on the Divine Attributes

Imam Abu Hanifah—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—said: “Allah, exalted is He, is not to be described with the attributes of created beings. His wrath and His pleasure are two of His own attributes, without asking how; this is the position of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaʿah. He becomes angry and He is pleased, and it must not be said that His anger is simply His punishment or that His pleasure is simply His reward. Rather, we describe Him exactly as He has described Himself: ‘He is Allah, the One, the Self-Sufficient. He begets not, nor is He begotten, and there is none comparable to Him’ (Q 112:1–4). He is the Living, the Self-Subsisting, the All-Powerful, the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, the All-Knowing. ‘The hand of Allah is over their hands’ (Q 48:10)—yet His hand is in no way like the hands of His creation, nor is it a physical limb.”