295- This ḥadith is sound (ḥasan); its documentation has already been provided—see note ⦗11⦘.

296- I remark: its chain of transmission is weak. It is reported through ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī—who is reliable yet sometimes errs—from his father, ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim ibn Ṣuhayb al-Wāsiṭī, who is reliable but frequently makes mistakes and persists in them; from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, who became confused in his later years.

139- Ibn al-Bāqillānī (d. 403 AH)

313- The judge Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Baṣrī al-Bāqillānī—undisputedly the foremost Ashʿarī theologian—said in his book al-Ibānah:

“If it be asked, ‘What proves that Allah possesses a face and a hand?’ the answer is His statement: ‘…and there will remain the Face of your Lord’ (55:27), and His statement: ‘What prevented you from prostrating to that which I created with My two hands’ (38:75). Thus He affirmed for Himself a face and a hand.

If it be asked, ‘What prevents you from holding that His face and hand are bodily limbs, since you understand nothing of a face or hand except a limb?’ we reply: That does not follow—just as it does not follow that everything eternal in and of itself must be a substance simply because, in our experience and yours, we have never found anything self-subsistent and eternal except a substance. The same answer applies if they say, ‘Then His knowledge, life, speech, hearing, sight, and the rest of His essential attributes must be accidents,’ adducing mere existence as their proof.

If it be asked, ‘Do you maintain that He is in every place?’ we reply: Far be it from Allah! Rather, He is established over His Throne, as He informed in His Book: ‘The All-Merciful rose over the Throne’ (20:5); ‘To Him ascends the good word’ (35:10); and ‘Do you feel secure from Him Who is in the heaven?’ (67:16). He went on to say:

‘Were He in every place, He would be inside a human being’s belly, in his mouth, and in latrines; He would necessarily expand with the increase of places whenever new ones were created; and it would be permissible to supplicate Him while facing the earth, or behind us, or to our right or left—yet Muslims are unanimously agreed that this is false and condemn anyone who says it.’

He continued:

‘Among the attributes of His Essence with which He has always been—and will always remain—described are life, knowledge, power, hearing, sight, speech, will, face, two hands, two eyes, anger, and pleasure.’

314- He expressed the same position in his book al-Tamhīd, and in his work al-Dhab