poverty and wealth. I ask You for bliss that never ends and joy that never ceases. I ask You for contentment after Your decree, the sweetness of life after death, the delight of gazing upon Your Face, and longing to meet You without harmful adversity or a trial that leads astray. O Allah, adorn us with the beauty of faith and make us guides who are themselves rightly guided.” (1)

Thus, Allah and His Messenger have called the attributes of Allah Most High knowledge, power, and strength. Allah Most High says (2):

“It is Allah who created you in weakness, then gave you strength after weakness, then gave you weakness and old age after strength.”

[Surah al-Rūm: 54]

And He says:

“Indeed, he possessed knowledge because of what We had taught him.”

[Surah Yūsuf: 68]

It is well known that not all knowledge is alike, nor is all strength alike. There are many similar examples.

This reasoning necessarily applies to every rational person. Thus, anyone who denies some of the attributes with which Allah has described Himself—such as pleasure, anger, love, hatred, and the like—and claims that affirming them entails likening Him to creation and attributing corporeality to Him, is told:

“You affirm will, speech, hearing, and sight for Him, while maintaining that what you affirm is unlike the attributes of created beings. Therefore, make the same claim about what you affirm as you make about what you deny—even though Allah and His Messenger have affirmed the latter—for there is no distinction between the two.”

If he says:

“I do not affirm any attributes at all,”

he is told:

“Yet you affirm His Most Beautiful Names, such as Living, Knowing, and Powerful,”