Allah is described by the generality of those who affirm His attributes as having knowledge, power, speech, and will—even though these are not accidents subject to the conditions applicable to the attributes of created beings—then Allah’s face and His two hands may likewise be attributes that are not bodies subject to the conditions applicable to the attributes of created beings. This is the position that al-Khattābī and others have reported from the early generations. The statements of most of them indicate this, and those of the rest do not contradict it. The matter is clear, for the attributes are like the essence: just as Allah’s essence truly exists without being of the same kind as created beings, His attributes are real without being of the same kind as the attributes of created beings.

If someone says, “I cannot conceive of knowledge or a hand except as being of the same kind as the knowledge and hands familiar to us,” he is told:

“How, then, can you conceive of an essence that is not of the same kind as the essences of created beings? It is well known that the attributes of anything correspond to its essence and accord with its reality. Whoever understands the attributes of the Lord—there is nothing like Him—only in a manner befitting a created being has gone astray in both his understanding and his religion.”

How well some of them have put it:

If a Jahmī asks you, “How did He rise? How does He descend to the lowest heaven? What are His two hands like?” or something similar, say to him, “What is He like in His essence?” If he tells you, “None knows what He is except Him, and the essential reality of the Creator, exalted is He, is unknown to human beings,” then say to him:

“Knowing how an attribute is necessarily entails knowing how the one possessing that attribute is. How, then, can you know the manner of an attribute belonging to a being