The Refutation of Those Who Say: The Study of the Names and Attributes of Allah Emerged After the Blessed Centuries, and That It Is Part of Philosophy.

The Shaykh : As for the claim that the study of the Essence of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), His attributes and His names, are matters that emerged later, and that this is merely the philosophy of the philosophers; this is a very strange matter. Our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) says: . The scholars interpreted the word "worship" in its apparent meaning, so that they may fulfill the right of His worship, Him alone, with no partner. However, some mentioned another interpretation, saying: "So that they may know," and "I did not create the jinn and mankind except to know Me." This meaning does not contradict the first meaning in any way; for the true worship of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) cannot be realized in the heart of the believer unless he knows Allah (Mighty and Majestic) with true knowledge. And naturally, this knowledge can only be reached through the path of the Book and the Sunnah. This is because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) mentioned the first condition for true believers at the beginning of Surat al-Baqarah when He said: . After mentioning faith in the unseen, He mentioned prayer, zakah, and the like, saying: .
And if we return to the books of tafsir, we will find that they are unanimous in interpreting "the unseen" here as everything that is hidden from your mind; that is, that your mind cannot grasp it. This is the unseen about which it is obligatory to believe, with one condition: that it be from what came in the Book of Allah or from what came in the authentic hadith of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). It is therefore beyond doubt that Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) is the unseen of the unseen. Therefore, the scholars say: "Whatever comes to your mind, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is other than that." They say this because it is an unseen that we do not grasp, as He (the Exalted) said: . Since the matter is thus, it is not permissible for us to stop at believing in this unseen, which we have described approximately for the minds, because it is the unseen of the unseen, except within the limits of how Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has defined Himself to us in the verses of His Book and in the hadiths of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
And it is beyond doubt and doubt that the definition of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) of Himself to His servants was in this language, as I mentioned earlier, the language by which we understood the entire Shari'ah of Allah. Therefore, we must also understand Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in His attributes in the same way we understood the verses of rulings, morals, and the like by the same method.