and sight, knowledge, power, will, and speech for Allah. Yet we certainly conceive of life only as that transient property that inheres in our bodies; likewise, we understand hearing and sight only as accidents that subsist in our senses. So just as they say, “His life is not an accident, and neither are His knowledge and His sight—these are attributes that befit Him, not attributes that befit us,” we in turn say: His life is known, but without asking how; His knowledge is known, but without asking how; and the same holds for His hearing and His sight. None of these are accidents—rather, they are as befits Him.

Exactly the same applies to His being above, to His istiwāʾ, and to His descent. His exaltedness is known—that is, affirmed—just as the reality of hearing and the reality of sight are affirmed: they are known, yet their modality is not specified. Likewise, His being above is known and affirmed without modality, in a way that befits Him; His establishment over the Throne is known, yet not described in terms of movement or relocation proper to a creature, but rather in a manner consonant with His majesty. The magnificence of His attributes is known as to their reality and existence, but unknown as to their how and their limits. Thus the believer beholds them from one angle and is blind from another: he beholds them inasmuch as he affirms their existence, but is blind to their modality and delimitation. In this way one unites affirming what Allah, exalted is He, has described of Himself with denying distortion, anthropomorphism, and agnosticism about the text—and that is what the Lord, exalted be He, intends of us in disclosing His attributes: that we should know Him through them, believe in their realities, deny for them any likeness to creation, and not nullify them by distortion or figurative reinterpretation. There is no difference between istiwāʾ and hearing, nor between descent and sight; all of them are confirmed by Revelation.

If they say to us about istiwāʾ, “You have likened (Him to creation),” we say to them about hearing, “You have likened (Him) and have described your Lord with an accident!” If they respond, “It is not an accident, but as befits Him,” we reply concerning istiwāʾ and exaltedness, “It is not confinement, but as befits Him.” Every charge of anthropomorphism they raise against us regarding istiwāʾ, descent, the Hand, the Face, the Foot, laughter, and amazement, we raise against them regarding life, hearing, sight, and knowledge. Just as they do not consider those latter attributes to be accidents, we do not consider these former attributes to be bodily organs or properties of created beings. It is unjust to understand istiwāʾ, descent, the Face, and the Hand in terms of the qualities of creatures and then feel compelled to resort to figurative reinterpretation and distortion.