find that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ ever warned people against believing in the outward sense of his words when he described his Lord—with respect to loftiness, the two Hands, and the like. No statement has been transmitted from him indicating that these attributes carry some other hidden meaning beyond their apparent signification. And I find that Allah the Exalted says …
He then cited a number of Qur’anic verses about istiwāʾ (establishment over the Throne) and transcendence, along with prophetic reports on the subject—only a small sampling of what will follow in this book—and then said ⦗181⦘¹:
“If we know this and hold it as our creed, we escape the speciousness of figurative reinterpretation, the blindness of negation, and the folly of likening and anthropomorphism. We affirm our Lord’s elevation, His transcendence, and His istiwāʾ over His Throne in a manner befitting His Majesty and His greatness. The truth of this is unmistakably clear, and hearts find ease in it. Sound intellect cannot accept distortion—such as turning istiwāʾ into ‘dominion’ and the like—while suspending judgment here is ignorance and indolence. The Lord, exalted is He, has described Himself with these attributes so that we might know Him by means of them; to refrain from both affirming and denying them is to deviate from His purpose in making them known to us. He only described Himself to us in this way so that we would affirm for ourselves what He has described of Himself, without halting at that point. Likewise, likening Him to creation or specifying a modality for His attributes is sheer stupidity and ignorance. Whoever Allah grants success to affirm without distortion, without asking how, and without hesitation has fulfilled what is required of him, Allah willing.”
He then began to explain the reason that led certain scholastic theologians to interpret istiwāʾ as “dominion,” saying ⦗181–183⦘:
“What Allah has opened to me regarding the condition of those shaykhs who interpreted istiwāʾ as dominion and … is my knowledge that they perceived of the Lord’s attributes only what befits created beings. They failed to grasp an istiwāʾ that befits Allah; therefore they twisted the words from their proper contexts and set aside what Allah has attributed to Himself. We shall clarify this, if Allah wills.
There is no doubt that we and they are agreed upon affirming the attributes of life and hearing, …"