Chapter on the Divine Attributes

Abu Hanifah—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—said: “Allah Most High is not to be described with the attributes of created beings. His anger and His pleasure are two of His attributes, without asking how; this is the creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamaʿah. He becomes angry and He is pleased, and it must not be said that His anger simply means His punishment or that His pleasure merely means His reward. Rather, we describe Him exactly as He has described Himself: He is One, the Self-Sufficient Refuge; He neither begets nor is begotten, and none is comparable to Him. He is the Ever-Living, the Sustainer, the All-Powerful, the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, the All-Knowing. “The Hand of Allah is above their hands” (48:10)—yet His hand is unlike the hands of His creation and is not a limb.