Continuation of the discussion on the reason for the people of innovation denying the attributes of Allah, which is their claim that affirming the attributes of Allah necessitates likening Him to creation.

The Shaykh : This is the ill effect, or one of the ill effects, of the figurative interpretation of the Qur'anic texts and the Prophetic hadiths. They opened up for themselves the door of theological discourse and the door of imagining the Lord of the Worlds as if He were a created human being. Likewise, the problem of the Divine Speech: precisely, they imagined that if we say Allah speaks, it means He has lips, a tongue, teeth, and so on. Allah is Greater. How ignorant are these people, where a single word in the Qur'an leads them to imagine defects attributed to Allah. And knowing that these are falsehoods, and thinking that these falsehoods... [from the Qur'anic text], they distorted the Qur'anic text, so... [from these falsehoods], even though with their own tongues they would rid themselves of them by recalling any single verse from the Noble Qur'an ... so that the idea of the All-Hearing, meaning He speaks, and the All-Seeing, as a seer, does not cross their minds. No, He does not hear anything. So, if you affirm and purify, then if you purify and liken, you have disbelieved in the first part of the verse. If you purify and deny the attributes, you have disbelieved in the second part of the verse. So, it is necessary to combine purification with affirmation. The Mu'tazilah do purify, but their excess in purification led them to deny the verses, the verses of attributes... Do you know what they did? What does it mean? Exactly as they said, meaning the result of their figurative interpretation, just as they interpreted the Divine Speech and just as they interpreted rising above the Throne, they gained nothing. They said the All-Hearing and the All-Seeing means the All-Knowing. First, you... So the All-Hearing and the All-Seeing means the All-Knowing... He described Himself as All-Knowing in many verses. Yes, here He did not describe Himself as All-Knowing, but rather described Himself as All-Hearing and All-Seeing... Then, what did you gain from this figurative interpretation? Why? Allah is All-Knowing and so-and-so is All-Knowing, this is... No, we say Allah is All-Knowing, not like the knowledge of this knower... This is the school of thought, and we say He is All-Seeing, and the problem is solved.