thing that keeps you away from the Fire without telling you of it,” and, “I have left you upon a clear path, whose night is like its day; none will deviate from it after me except one who is doomed”—then leave the Book revealed to him and his radiant Sunnah full of statements whose apparent meaning, according to the opponent, likens Allah to creation and ascribes corporeality to Him, such that believing their apparent meaning is misguidance—without explaining or clarifying this? How could the early generations say, “Leave them as they have come,” if their figurative meaning is what is intended, yet this is something the Arabs do not understand? Are the descendants of the Persians and Romans then more knowledgeable about the Arabic language than the descendants of the Emigrants and the Helpers?

(The fourth point):

I said to him: “I shall present clear, decisive, and evident proofs demonstrating to you that Allah truly has ‘two Hands.’

“Among these is His favoring Adam in a manner that required the angels to prostrate to him and refrain from treating him arrogantly. If what was meant were that He created him by His power, through His favor, or merely that his creation was attributed to Him, then Iblīs and all created beings would share this with him.”

He said to me: “Something may be attributed to Allah as a mark of honor, as in His saying, ‘Allah’s she-camel,’ and the House of Allah.”

I said to him: “Such attribution is not an honor unless the thing attributed to Him possesses a quality that distinguishes it from others. Had the she-camel and the House not possessed clear signs distinguishing them from all other she-camels and houses, they would not have merited this attribution. The same applies here: attributing the creation of