Shaykh al-Islam Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked about someone who says:

“The apparent meanings of the texts consistently indicate what is corporeal or suggest corporeality, whereas reason establishes that the Creator, Almighty and Majestic, is exalted above this. The safest course for the believer is therefore to say: ‘This is ambiguous; none but Allah knows its interpretation.’”

Someone said to him: “There must be a governing criterion for this: a distinction, among the attributes, between what is ambiguous and what is not. Claiming that all the attributes are subject to such interpretation is false and may even lead to disbelief. It would entail that no meaning is known for any of His attributes. There must therefore be a distinction between what is subject to interpretation and what is not.”

He replied: “Whatever rational proof shows to involve ascribing corporeality is ambiguous.”

Is this correct or not? Please explain the matter at length.

He answered:

Praise be to Allah, Lord of all worlds. This is a major and momentous question concerning which multitudes, both earlier and later, have fallen into confusion since the beginning of the second century after the Prophet’s migration. During the first century, however, there was no confusion among the Muslims concerning this. It arose only at the beginning of the second century, when al-Ja'd ibn Dirham and his associate al-Jahm ibn Safwān appeared, along with the Mu'tazilīs and others who followed them in denying the divine attributes.