—that is, because of what you yourselves have put forward, for part of what they put forward was nothing more than the words they uttered.

Likewise, He says: “If only you could see when the angels take the souls of those who disbelieved, striking their faces and their backs … until His words, ‘That is because of what your own hands have sent ahead.’” ⦗8:50–51⦘.

The Arabs also say: “Your two hands tied it and your mouth blew into it,” a reproach for anyone who brings harm upon himself; the expression was first coined for someone who literally did so with his own hands and mouth.

I said to him: We do not deny any of these Arabic usages in which the Quran was revealed. Yet those who indulge in figurative interpretation of the divine attributes—distorting the words from their proper places and deviating with respect to His Names and verses—have interpreted His saying,

“Rather, both His hands are outspread” ⦗5:64⦘,

and His saying,

“for what I created with My two hands” ⦗38:75⦘,

in all the ways mentioned above. They claim that what is meant is His favor—namely, the favor of this world and of the Hereafter; others say it is His power; still others say the wording is merely a circumlocution for sheer generosity, with no actual hand, the term having become a literal synonym for giving and munificence. As for “for what I created with My two hands,” they explain it to mean, “I created him Myself,” even though no real hand is intended.

I asked him, “Are these their interpretations?” He said, “Yes.”

So I replied: Let us examine what we have already set out.

First point: The dual form “the two hands” is never used in Arabic for “favor” or for “power.” The language of the Arabs allows the singular to stand for the plural, as in, “Indeed, man is in loss” ⦗103:2⦘; the plural to stand for the singular, as in, “Those to whom the people said, ‘Indeed, the people have gathered against you’” ⦗3:173⦘; and the plural to stand for two, as in, “Your hearts have inclined” (addressed to two women) ⦗66:4⦘. But using the singular for two, or the dual for one, has no basis, for these words are numerals whose meanings are explicit and admit no figurative extension. One may not say, “I have one man,” intending two, nor “I have two men,” intending the entire class, because a singular noun already denotes the genus, and the genus is realized by a single instance; the same holds for the plural.

Accordingly, His statement, “for what I created with My two hands,” cannot possibly mean “by My power,” for power is a single attribute and one cannot use the dual to express the singular. Nor can it mean “by My favor,” for Allah’s favors are countless and one does not refer to innumerable favors with the dual. Nor can it simply mean “for what I created Myself,” for when the Arabs intend that meaning they attach the verb directly to the doer without mentioning the hand.