Allah Most High of His most beautiful names and attributes. Rather, this amounts to denying the Creator and likening Him to nonexistent things. Abū ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-Barr said:

“Ahl al-Sunnah unanimously affirm all the attributes mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah, believe in them, and understand them literally rather than figuratively. However, they do not specify how any of these attributes are, nor do they define them in circumscribed terms. As for the ‘people of innovation’ among the Jahmiyyah, Mu‘tazilah, and Khawārij, they deny these attributes and do not understand them literally. They claim that whoever affirms them likens Allah to His creation, whereas those who affirm them regard these people as denying the One who is worshipped, rather than affirming Him. The truth lies in what is said by those who affirm what the Book and Sunnah declare, together with the imams of the community.”

What Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr reports here concerning the Mu‘tazilah and others like them applies to some of the attributes they deny. As for the names and attributes they affirm, such as the Ever-Living, the All-Knowing, the All-Powerful, and the One who speaks, they say that these apply literally.

Whoever denies that any of these names and attributes applies literally does so only because he does not understand what “literal” means, or because of his disbelief and denial of what rightfully belongs to the Lord of all worlds. He may suppose that applying these terms entails that the created being resembles the Creator. He should therefore be told: This is false. Allah truly exists, and the servant truly exists, yet the two are not alike. Allah Most High has a real essence, and the servant has a real essence, yet His essence is not like the essences of created beings. Likewise, He truly has knowledge, hearing, and sight, and the servant truly has knowledge, hearing, and sight; yet it is not the case that