What is the ruling on one who delves into the names and attributes without knowledge?

Al-Halabi : He saysThe questioner : The chapter on the oneness of the names and attributes is one of the subtle chapters in which the understanding of the minds of many people has delved, both in the past and the present. You see many people speaking about it without knowledge, and few of them speaking about it with knowledge. Among those who speak about it without knowledge are those who say that the verses of the names and attributes are of the ambiguous (mutashabih) type, whose meaning no one knows except Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). So what is your opinion on this? We ask for clarification. May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : ...There are many writings by us, the people of the Sunnah and the community, and by those who oppose the people of the Sunnah and the community. It is not possible to answer such a question in a few minutes, but I say that the interpretation (ta'wil) negated by the explicit text of the Noble Qur'an: Here the error of those who adopt the position of tafwid (delegation) regarding the verses of attributes and the hadiths of attributes becomes apparent. They say, "We delegate their meanings to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and do not delve into them." They have no proof in such a verse, nor any other proof besides it. If their proof is this, then as you hear, our Lord says: and He did not say, "No one knows their meanings except Allah." The interpretation (ta'wil) of a thing is knowing its outcome and its reality.

The questioner : And what it leads to.

The Shaykh : And what it leads to and ends up being. Yes. So when we read some of the verses of attributes or the hadiths of attributes, there is no doubt or hesitation that we understand their meanings, such as His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He) in the verse mentioned in many places: Just as we understand His hadith (peace and blessings be upon him) which is mass-transmitted (mutawatir) from him: So we understand the meaning of istiwaa' (rising above the Throne) and we understand the meaning of descent, but the reality of that istiwaa' and that descent is known only to Allah. This is what is intended by this verse, and it is not what the people of tafwid claim, that we do not know the meanings of these verses. How can that be reasonable, let alone prescribed? And our Lord (Mighty and Majestic), as He said in the Noble Qur'an: So His beautiful names are a very large portion mentioned in the Noble Qur'an, and another portion mentioned in the hadiths of the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and blessings be upon him). And these names, without doubt, at the time they are names for Allah, are attributes for Him. So if we say that these names, like attributes, cannot be understood by us in any way, because Allah says: its meaning is that we have denied the names of Allah, we have denied His attributes (Blessed and Exalted is He). And when we call upon Him by His beautiful names, we call upon Him with things whose meanings we do not know. What is the meaning of al-Hayy (the Living)? We do not know. Al-Qayyum (the Self-Subsisting)? We do not know. The number of names is ninety-nine and more. So the meaning of what was previously raised as a question is that they do not understand anything of the meanings of these noble names. Would a Muslim say that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has made Himself known to His servants by names and attributes that have no meanings understood by us? Far be it from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). This is the very denial (ta'til) about which Imam Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) spoke explicitly when he said: "The one who ascribes a body to Allah worships an idol, and the one who denies attributes worships nothing." The one who denies attributes worships nothing, in fact. What are these names? We do not know their meanings. Either we know or we do not know. If we know, what is the meaning of "no one knows its interpretation"? It means no one knows their realities, because we believe in the essence of Allah what we believe in the attributes of Allah, in affirmation and negation. So when we affirm the existence of Allah, we affirm for Him a real, necessary existence, as the scholars of kalam say, and when we affirm for Him those attributes, we also affirm them for Him, and we distinguish in meaning between one attribute and another. So we understand that al-Sami' (the All-Hearing) is not al-Basir (the All-Seeing), and al-Basir is not al-Qadir (the All-Powerful), and so on for all attributes. So these attributes are all understood, and praise be to Allah, but their realities are unknown to us, like the essence. Do we know the reality of the essence of Allah? Far be it from Allah, but we know with certainty that the essence of Allah is the one who created these beings, and it is described with all attributes of perfection and free from all attributes of imperfection. For that reason, it is authentically narrated from the Imam of the City of Migration, Malik ibn Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), when that man came to him.The questioner : And he said to him, "O Malik, What is the meaning of istiwaa'?" He said: "Istiwaa' is known, the how (kayf) is unknown, and asking about it—meaning about the how—is an innovation (bid'ah). Take this man out, for he is an innovator (mubtadi')." So istiwaa' is known, and it is rising above, as established from the Salaf, but the how of istiwaa' is unknown, just as we are ignorant of the realities of the essence and all the attributes, as we mentioned. So our ignorance of the reality of the essence and the reality of the attribute does not lead us to claim that we do not understand anything. And according to the saying of our brothers in Aleppo, "We do not understand anything of these names at all," this is ignorance itself and arrogance. Because when Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says to us: What does it mean? Does it not mean that we should believe what He describes Himself with? There is no doubt about that. And is it possible to believe in Allah what He described Himself with, by ignorance or by knowledge? There is no doubt that the answer is by knowledge, not by ignorance. The complete verse is: Our Lord described Himself as al-Sami' (the All-Hearing) and al-Basir (the All-Seeing). Can we understand Allah by saying, "We do not know, what is the meaning of al-Sami' and what is the meaning of al-Basir?" That is ignorance, that is the denial (ta'til) that you heard earlier from Ibn al-Qayyim: "The one who ascribes a body to Allah worships an idol, and the one who denies attributes worships nothing." The matter has reached such a point with these deniers (mu'attilah) that they actually say there is no existence for Allah. This Allah whom you worship has no existence. Why? Because every existent must either be inside the world or outside the world. And they have described their Lord with the following negative attributes. They said, and I heard this from one of my shaykhs on the pulpit on Friday, misleading people by refuting the Salafis who say: He rose above, as Imam Malik said and as all the Salaf said. So they say, "Allah is not above, not below, not to the right, not to the left, not in front, not behind, not inside the world, not outside it." The philosophers added some of what I heard from my shaykh. I am innocent of his saying. I did not hear this last description. They said, "Not connected to it, not separated from it."
Al-Halabi : Did they say, "Not a creator, not a created"?

The Shaykh : Yes. I once said to some of them, if the most eloquent of the Arabs in expression were told, "Describe for us the non-existent thing that has no existence," he would not be able to describe this non-existent thing with more than what those described their worshipped one when they said: "Allah is not above, not below, not to the right, not to the left, not in front, not behind, not inside the world, not outside it." The philosophers said, "Not connected to it, not separated from it." This is non-existence. So do not be surprised by the saying of Ibn al-Qayyim: "The one who denies attributes worships nothing," because this is their saying. And this reminds me of the position of Ibn Taymiyyah regarding the shaykhs of the scholars of kalam, when they held a public debate against him before the Amir of Damascus at that time. He gathered them with Ibn Taymiyyah and they discussed among themselves. The king was intelligent, he was not a scholar, but he was intelligent, he was sharp. He heard such phrases, which may have been exactly the same, because the later generations (Khalaf) inherited these words from their predecessors, and perhaps their meanings as well. In any case, Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) explained there the creed of the Salaf, naturally, better than what we mentioned to you earlier, and explained the creed of the later generations (Khalaf), and of course, I say, worse than what we mentioned earlier. Yes. So the intelligent, sharp, and perceptive Amir said: "These are people who have lost their Lord." (He laughs)The Shaykh : And the students, may Allah preserve them. In truth, I was completely impressed by this statement, even though he was not a scholar, but when the common person whose fitrah (innate natural disposition) is sound hears, "Allah is not above, not below, not to the right, not to the left, not in front, not behind, not inside the world, not outside it," by Allah, these are people who have lost their Lord. Where is the description of this Lord? We do not know it. It is other than Him, O my master.