His Messenger Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—without distortion or denial, and without specifying how these attributes are or likening them to those of creation. Rather, they believe that Allah—glorified be He—is as He has said:

“There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing.”

They do not deny Him the attributes with which He has described Himself, distort words from their proper meanings, or deviate from the truth concerning Allah’s names and verses. They neither specify how His attributes are nor liken them to the attributes of His creation. For He—glorified be He—has no peer, no equal, and no rival, nor can He be measured against His creation—glorified and exalted be He. He knows Himself and all others better than His creation does, and His speech is more truthful and more excellent than theirs. His messengers, moreover, are truthful and worthy of belief, unlike those who say about Him what they do not know. Therefore, He—glorified and exalted be He—says:

“Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Might, far above what they ascribe to Him. Peace be upon the messengers, and all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.”

He thus declares Himself far above what those who oppose the messengers ascribe to Him, and pronounces peace upon the messengers because their statements are free from deficiency and fault. In the attributes and names with which He describes Himself, He—glorified be He—combines negation and affirmation. The people of the Sunnah and the community therefore do not depart from what the messengers brought, for it is the straight path: the path of those whom Allah has blessed—the prophets, those steadfast in truth, the martyrs, and the righteous.

Included in this general statement are the attributes with which He describes Himself in Sūrat al-Ikhlās (the Surah of Sincerity), which is equivalent to