I said to him:
When Allah describes Himself with an attribute—or His Messenger describes Him with it, or He is so described by those believers whose guidance and understanding all Muslims acknowledge—and someone then diverts that attribute from its outward sense, which befits the Majesty of Allah, exalted is He, and from the literal meaning that is immediately understood, to an inner sense that contradicts the outward wording and to a figurative meaning that negates the reality, four conditions must be fulfilled:
First: The expression must actually be employed in that figurative meaning, for the Book, the Sunnah, and the speech of the salaf came in the Arabic language, and it is impermissible to intend by any of them something contrary to Arabic usage—or contrary to all human languages. Therefore, that figurative meaning has to be one for which the word is genuinely used; otherwise, any false claimant could interpret any expression with whatever meaning occurs to him, even if it has no basis in the language.
Second: Evidence must exist that obliges diverting the wording from its literal sense to its figurative sense. When an expression is used literally for one meaning and figuratively for another, it is, by the consensus of rational people, impermissible to adopt the figurative meaning without proof that necessitates the diversion. If someone claims that it must be taken figuratively, he must present a decisive proof—rational or transmitted—that obliges the shift. If he merely claims that the figurative rendering is the obvious one, he must supply evidence that makes the figurative sense the preferred interpretation.
Third: The evidence that diverts the wording from the literal sense must itself be free of any counter-evidence. If a Qur’anic or faith-based proof shows that the literal sense is intended, abandoning it becomes impermissible. Should that proof be an explicit, decisive text, its opposite is disregarded; and if it is only apparent, the competing proofs must be weighed and preference determined.
Fourth: Whenever the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—utters words intending something other than their outward wording and contrary to their literal sense, he must make clear to the community that he did not intend the literal sense but the figurative one, whether or not he specifies what that figurative meaning is. This is especially true in doctrinal discourse, where the aim is for them to attain correct belief and knowledge rather than merely perform bodily actions. Indeed, Allah, exalted is He, has made the Quran a light, a guidance, a clarification for humankind, and a healing for what is in the breasts. He sent the messengers to clarify to the people what had been revealed to them, to judge between them in their disputes, and so that people would have no argument against Allah after the messengers. And this unlettered Arab Messenger was sent with the most eloquent of tongues and the clearest of expressions,