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Some who affiliate themselves with “the Sunnah and hadith” have interpreted figuratively the hadith of the descent and similar texts concerning the Lord’s intransitive acts, such as coming, arriving, descending, and the like. They have transmitted statements to this effect from Mālik and Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Indeed, later scholars among Ahmad’s followers, such as Abū al-Hasan ibn al-Zāghūnī and others, reported two positions from Ahmad concerning figurative interpretation in this category, unlike other categories, concerning which no conflicting positions on figurative interpretation were transmitted from him.

Ibn ‘Aqīl extended these two reported positions on figurative interpretation beyond this attribute. At times he deems figurative interpretation obligatory, at times forbidden, and at times permissible. Sometimes he applies it to “all the scripturally reported attributes,” which he calls attributions—not attributes—in agreement with the Mu‘tazilites from whom he learned this, such as Abū ‘Alī ibn al-Walīd and Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Tabbān, both of whom were followers of Abū al-Husayn al-Basrī. Abū al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzī agrees with Ibn ‘Aqīl on this in some of his books, such as Kaff al-tashbīh bi-kaff al-tanzīh, but disagrees with him in others.