the path of the enemies of Abraham, Moses, and Muhammad, who denied that Allah truly spoke to Moses and took Abraham as an intimate friend.

Allah also spoke to Muhammad and took him as an intimate friend, just as He took Abraham as an intimate friend, and raised him many degrees beyond that.

They followed Pharaoh, who said:

“O Hāmān, build me a lofty tower so that I may reach the ways—the ways of the heavens—and look upon the God of Moses. Indeed, I think he is a liar.”

They also followed the polytheists of whom it is said:

“When they are told, ‘Prostrate to the Most Merciful,’ they say, ‘And what is the Most Merciful? Should we prostrate to what you command us?’”

They followed those who deviated concerning Allah’s names. They deny the reality of His being the Most Merciful, or that He shows mercy, speaks, loves His servants or is loved by them, or that He is above the heavens. They claim that whoever affirms these attributes of Him has likened Him to bodies perceptible to the senses—namely, living creatures such as human beings—and that this amounts to likening Allah to His creation.

Yet they themselves have likened Him to lifeless bodies in matters of deficiency and defect—a likeness which the divine scriptures and innate reason show to be defective and deficient, indeed one that entails His nonexistence.

As for those who affirm His attributes, even if it were supposed that their statements involved some likeness, it would not be a likeness to something deficient or defective, nor would it concern an attribute of deficiency or defect. Rather, it would concern what is known to be the utmost perfection, whose possessor has majesty and honor.