is God in heaven and God on earth; and He is the All-Wise, the All-Knowing.”

“To Him ascends good speech, and righteous deeds raise it.”

“Indeed, I am with you both; I hear and I see.”

“And He is Allah in the heavens and on earth.”

“What prevented you from prostrating to what I created with My two Hands?”

“Rather, both His Hands are outstretched; He spends however He wills.”

“And the Face of your Lord, full of majesty and honour, will remain.”

“Desiring His Face.”

“So that you might be brought up under My Eye.”

And other passages like these.

Anyone who claims that these are ambiguous texts whose meaning cannot be known should be asked: Do you say this about all the names and attributes with which Allah has described Himself, or only some of them?

If you say that this applies to all of them, that is manifest obstinacy and a denial of what is necessarily known in Islam—indeed, outright disbelief. For we understand a meaning from His words:

“Indeed, Allah knows all things.”

And we understand from His words:

“Indeed, Allah is Powerful over all things,”

a meaning different from the first. We understand a meaning from His words:

“My mercy encompasses all things.”

And we understand a meaning from His words:

“Indeed, Allah is Almighty, capable of vengeance.”

Muslim children—indeed, every rational person—understand this. I have encountered someone from the Maghrib who embraced innovation and denial—despite his affiliation with hadith, corrupt philosophy had influenced him—who says: “We call Allah the Most Merciful, the All-Knowing, and the All-Powerful merely as proper names, without understanding from them any meaning indicating anything whatsoever. Likewise, concerning His words, ‘They encompass nothing of His knowledge,’ we utter this expression without saying that He possesses knowledge.” And this