Nu'aym ibn Hammād al-Khuzā'ī said:

“Whoever likens Allah to His creation has disbelieved, and whoever denies what Allah has described Himself with has disbelieved. What Allah and His Messenger have described Him with does not constitute likening Him to creation.”

The way of the early generations stands between two doctrines, offering guidance between two errors: affirming the attributes while denying any likeness to created beings. Thus, His saying, Most High:

“There is nothing like Him,”

refutes those who liken Allah to creation and assert resemblance between them. His saying:

“And He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing,”

refutes those who deny and negate His attributes. The one who likens Him to creation is dim-sighted, while the one who negates His attributes is blind: the former worships an idol, and the latter worships nothingness.

All those who affirm the attributes agree that Allah truly lives, truly knows, truly has power, truly hears, truly sees, truly wills, and truly speaks. Even the Mu'tazilīs, who deny the attributes, say that Allah truly speaks, just as they say—along with all other Muslims—that Allah truly knows and truly has power. Indeed, some of them, such as Abū al-'Abbās al-Nāshi', held that these names apply literally to Allah and figuratively to creation.

The majority of the Mu'tazilīs, however, together with the scholastic theologians who affirm the attributes—the Ash'arī-Kullābīs, Karrāmīs, Sālimīs, the followers of the four imams among the Hanafīs, Mālikīs, Shāfi'īs, and Hanbalīs, the people of hadith, and the Sufis—say that these names apply literally to the Creator, glorified and exalted be He, even though they also apply literally to His creation. They also say that He possesses real knowledge, real power, real hearing, and real sight.