, drawing on all these usages. They said: What is meant is His blessing—that is, the blessing of this world and the blessing of the Hereafter. They also said: “By His power.” They further said: The expression is an indirect reference to generosity itself, without there actually being a hand; rather, this expression has become a literal designation for giving and generosity.

His words:

“What I created with My two Hands”

mean: “I Myself created it,” even if there is no actual hand.

I said to him: “Are these, then, their interpretations?”

He replied: “Yes.”

I said to him: Let us, then, examine what we have already set out:

(The first point: The expression “two hands,” in the dual form, has not been used to mean either blessing or power. For the Arabs use the singular to mean the plural, as in His saying:

“Indeed, man is in loss.”

They also use the plural to mean the singular, as in His saying:

“Those to whom the people said, ‘Indeed, the people’”

and the plural to mean two, as in His saying:

“The hearts of you both have inclined.”

But using the singular to mean two, or the dual to mean one, has no basis. These expressions denote number and are explicit in their meanings; they cannot be used figuratively. One cannot say, “I have a man,” meaning two men, or “I have two men,” meaning the class as a whole. A singular noun can denote a class, and a class encompasses an indefinite range of individuals. Likewise, a plural noun carries the sense of a class, and a class is instantiated by even a single individual.

Thus, His words:

“What I created with My two Hands”

cannot mean power, because power is a single attribute, and the dual cannot be used to express the singular. Nor can they mean blessing, because Allah’s blessings are beyond counting, and blessings beyond counting cannot be expressed using the dual form.