the detailed affirmation of His names and attributes, and the general negation of deficiency and resemblance. The Lord Most High (1) is described by attributes of perfection [which admit no higher degree; He is entirely free of deficiency in every respect, and it is impossible that He should have any equal in any attribute of perfection] (2). As for attributes of deficiency, He is absolutely free of them; and as for attributes of perfection, nothing whatsoever resembles Him—or even comes close to Him—(3) in them.
Declaring Him transcendent comprises two things: negating deficiency and negating the resemblance of anything else to Him in His attributes of perfection. This is indicated by the surah:
“Say: He is Allah, the One,”
and by other passages [of the Quran] (4). Reason also establishes this, and the Quran directs attention to the rational proofs that establish it.
Moreover, Allah has informed us that some forms of bliss in the Hereafter have a counterpart (5) in this world, such as varieties of food, drink, clothing, spouses, and other things. Ibn ʿAbbās said:
“Of what is in Paradise, nothing is found in this world except the names.” (6)
The realities of those things—
(1) N and M: “and the Lord—glorified is He.”
(2) The text enclosed in square brackets is omitted only from N.
(3) N and M: “they neither resemble Him nor even come close to Him.”
(4) “of the Quran” is omitted from N and M.
(5) N and M: “that which has no counterpart,” which is an error.
(6) Al-Tabarī cited this report in connection with Allah Most High’s words: “and they will be given things resembling one another” [Surah al-Baqarah, 2:25]. He transmitted it through two chains (*al-Maʿārif* ed., 1:391–92):
Abū Kurayb narrated to me, saying: al-Ashjaʿī narrated to us. [A second chain:] Muhammad ibn Bashshār narrated to us, saying: Muʾammal narrated to us. Both said: Sufyān narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Abū Zabyān, from Ibn ʿAbbās. In his narration through al-Ashjaʿī, Abū Kurayb reported: “Nothing in Paradise resembles anything in this world except the names.” In his narration through Muʾammal, Ibn Bashshār reported: “Of what is in Paradise, nothing is found in this world except the names.”
The second chain is: ʿAbbās ibn Muhammad narrated to us, saying: Muhammad ibn ʿUbayd narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Abū Zabyān, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: “Nothing of Paradise exists in this world except the names.”
Ibn Kathīr cited this in his commentary on the verse and said: “Ibn Jarīr narrated it by way of al-Thawrī, and Ibn Abī Hātim through Abū Muʿāwiya, both from al-Aʿmash with the same chain.” Al-Suyūtī likewise said in *al-Durr al-Manthūr*, in his commentary on that verse: “Musaddad and Hannād in *al-Zuhd*, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Hātim, and al-Bayhaqī in *al-Baʿth* transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said: ‘Of what is in Paradise, nothing is found in this world except the names.’”