about the attributes of Allah Most High. He replied:

‘It is forbidden for minds to conceive a likeness of Allah Most High; for imaginations to set bounds to Him; for conjectures to reach definitive conclusions about Him; for souls to speculate about Him; for innermost thoughts to delve deeply; for passing thoughts to encompass Him; and for minds to comprehend anything beyond what He has described of Himself, or conveyed through His Prophet’—may blessings and peace be upon him.”

It is established that al-Hasan al-Basrī said:

“Muttarif spoke from this wooden pulpit words that had never been spoken before him and will never be spoken after him.”

They asked, “What were they, Abū Sa‘īd?”

He said:

“Praise be to Allah: part of faith in Him is to know nothing of Him beyond what He has described of Himself.”

Sahnūn said:

“Part of knowing Allah is to remain silent about anything beyond what He has described of Himself.”

It is established that al-Humaydī, Abū Bakr ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, said, “The foundations of the Sunnah”—then mentioned several matters before saying:

“As for what the Quran and hadith declare, such as:

‘The Jews say, “Allah’s hand is fettered.” May their hands be fettered!’

and:

‘And the heavens will be rolled up in His right hand,’

and similar passages in the Quran and hadith, we neither add to them nor explain them. We stop where the Quran and Sunnah stop, and we say:

‘The Most Merciful rose over the Throne.’

Whoever claims otherwise is a Jahmī.”

Thus, the way of the early generations—may Allah be pleased with them—is to affirm the attributes, take them according to their apparent meaning, and negate any modality for them. For discussion of the attributes derives from discussion of the Essence: affirming the Essence means affirming existence, not affirming a modality; the same applies to affirming the attributes. And on