claimed that these passages possess a meaning known only to Allah; so they consign that meaning to Him and maintain that this, they say, is the method of the early generations. In reality they have slandered the Salaf and attributed to them what the Salaf are completely innocent of, for the creed of the early Muslims is to affirm Allah’s attributes exactly as the Noble Book and the Prophetic Sunnah indicate, to keep them upon their apparent sense, to explain them in a way befitting the majesty of Allah, and never to consign them to oblivion. In their view such texts are muḥkam (clear and decisive), not mutashābih (ambiguous).
Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “According to the leading figures among these negators of the attributes, the meanings of these texts are known only to Allah, and the meaning He intended by them actually necessitates diverting them from their apparent sense. On their view, therefore, neither the Prophets and Messengers, nor the angels, nor the foremost believers know the meanings of what Allah revealed to them in these passages. Consequently much of what Allah has described Himself with in the Quran would be incomprehensible to the Prophets—in fact they would merely recite words whose meanings they do not grasp …”
He continued: “It is self-evident that this undermines both the Quran and the Prophets. Allah sent down the Quran, declared that He made it guidance and clarification for mankind, commanded the Messenger to convey it with manifest clarity and to explain to people what had been revealed to them, and instructed them to reflect upon and understand the Quran. Yet, according to this claim, the most noble part of the Quran—where the Lord speaks of His attributes, of His being the Creator of all things and All-Knowing of everything, of His commands and prohibitions, promises and threats, and of the realities of the Hereafter—no one knows its meaning. It can neither be understood nor pondered; the Messenger, then, would not have explained to people what was sent down, nor fulfilled the clear delivery of the message.”
Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—also denied that the Salaf held this view, saying: “As for including Allah’s names and attributes—or any part of them—among the mutashābih whose interpretation is known only to Allah, we ask: what evidence is there for this? I do not know of anyone from the predecessors of the ummah, nor from the leading imams, nor Ahmad…"