[The Epistle on the Attributes of Perfection That Must Be Affirmed of Allah]
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The Epistle on Perfection
[By Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya]
Edited by:
Ahmad Hamdī Imām

Shaykh al-Islam—may Allah sanctify his soul—was asked:

The questioner said:

The scholars of Islam and its eminent authorities—may Allah grant them an excellent reward and honor their reception and final abode—are requested to lift the veil of generality and dispel the obscurity surrounding a premise upon which all adherents of religions and sects agree and upon which they base their views, with the exception of an obstinate disputant or one who defiantly denies the Lordship of Allah.

The premise is this:

“This is an attribute of perfection and must therefore be affirmed of Allah; and this is an attribute of imperfection and must therefore be negated of Him.” Yet they dispute over how this criterion applies to individual attributes, and they differ over which attributes belong to each of the two categories.

Ahl al-Sunnah say:

Hearing, sight, life, power, knowledge, speech, and the other attributes established by revelation—such as the Face, the two Hands, the two Eyes, anger, and pleasure—as well as attributes of action, such as laughter, descent, and rising over, are attributes of perfection, while their opposites are attributes of imperfection.