Thus, the believer knows the implications and effects of these attributes, which is what he is meant to know. He knows that Allah has power over all things; that Allah encompasses all things in knowledge; that the entire earth will be in His grasp on the Day of Resurrection and the heavens will be rolled up in His right hand; and that the believers will gaze upon the face of their Creator in Paradise, experiencing a delight beside which all other pleasures pale—and other such matters. Likewise, he knows that he has a Lord, a Creator, and One whom he worships, without knowing the full reality of any of this.

Indeed, this is the utmost extent of created beings’ knowledge: they know things in certain respects but do not encompass their full reality. Their knowledge of themselves is of this kind.

I said to him, “Is it permissible, then, to say that ‘the apparent meaning is not intended,’ when understood in this sense?”

He replied, “That is not possible.”

I said to him, “If someone says that the apparent meaning is not intended, meaning that the attributes of created beings are not intended, we say to him: ‘You are correct in your meaning but mistaken in your wording. Your wording suggests religious innovation and gives the Jahmiyyah a means of achieving their aim. You could instead have said: These attributes are to be left as they have come, according to their apparent sense, while knowing that Allah Most High’s attributes are not like those of created beings, and that He is exalted and holy, free of anything that would imply that He has a beginning or is deficient.’

“But whoever says that ‘the apparent meaning is not intended’ according to the second interpretation—which is what the Jahmiyyah and their followers among the Muʿtazilah, some Ashʿarīs, and others intend—has erred. Now, the closest of these ‘Jahmiyyah,’ the Ashʿarīs, say that He has seven attributes: life