And more than once I instructed that the entire creed be read again to this shaykh. Some of those present, however, thought this would take too long and that only the passage about which they had questions should be read to him. Their principal question concerned the expression “in the literal sense,” so they read that passage to him.

He then offered a sound discussion concerning the meaning conveyed by the wording. I approved of it, praised him for it, and said:

“There is no doubt that Allah is truly living, truly knowing, truly hearing, and truly seeing. This is agreed upon by the people of the Sunnah and those who affirm the divine attributes, across all groups. Even if some adherents of innovation dispute part of this, there is no doubt that Allah exists and that the created being exists. Whether the term ‘existence’ is applied to both equivocally, with only the wording shared; univocally, with both wording and meaning shared; or by graded predication, which is a form of univocal predication—on any of these views, Allah truly exists and the created being truly exists. Applying the same designation to the Creator and the created being in the literal sense entails no inadmissible consequence.”

On that occasion, I did not give preference to any one of these three views over the others, for my purpose was fully achieved in any case. My aim was to establish what I had stated on the premises of all the groups, and to show that the early generations and those who followed them agreed upon what I had stated, and that the leading scholars of the four schools, al-Ashʿarī, and his foremost followers held the position I had set out.

For before the second session, I had been approached by some leading scholars of the Shāfiʿī school, scholars affiliated with the Ashʿarīs, Hanafīs, and others. They were deeply apprehensive about this session, feared that their opponents would prevail in it, and also feared for themselves