(The Response to Their Doubt That Denying the Attributes and Affirming Them Is What Reason Indicates) So that is why their leader said to himself: *** A distinction other than what you see, these are attributes
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The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) composed this chapter to explain another doubt of the people of denial (ta'til). The doubt is that they say:
"So that is why their leader said to himself *** A distinction other than what you see"
First, they claimed that some attributes necessitate ascribing a body to Allah (tajsim), so they denied them, while others do not necessitate ascribing a body to Allah, so they affirmed them. This was in the previous chapter.
In this chapter, they brought another proof. They said: What we affirmed is indicated by reason, and what we denied is not indicated by reason. So they made their foundation in affirming the attributes or denying them from Allah what? Reason. And for this reason, he said:
"So that is why their leader said to himself *** A distinction other than what you see"
His saying: "you see" — the author imagines in such an expression that he is addressing two of his close friends, as you find in the poems of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance (jahiliyyah), where the poet says: "O my two friends", addressing his two close friends. So here, it is as if the author imagines that he has two close friends whom he is addressing.
"These are attributes our minds have indicated *** their affirmation along with the apparent meaning of the Qur'an"
Meaning that reason and revelation have agreed in indicating them. Our minds have indicated their affirmation along with the apparent meaning of the Qur'an.
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) composed this chapter to explain another doubt of the people of denial (ta'til). The doubt is that they say:
"So that is why their leader said to himself *** A distinction other than what you see"
First, they claimed that some attributes necessitate ascribing a body to Allah (tajsim), so they denied them, while others do not necessitate ascribing a body to Allah, so they affirmed them. This was in the previous chapter.
In this chapter, they brought another proof. They said: What we affirmed is indicated by reason, and what we denied is not indicated by reason. So they made their foundation in affirming the attributes or denying them from Allah what? Reason. And for this reason, he said:
"So that is why their leader said to himself *** A distinction other than what you see"
His saying: "you see" — the author imagines in such an expression that he is addressing two of his close friends, as you find in the poems of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance (jahiliyyah), where the poet says: "O my two friends", addressing his two close friends. So here, it is as if the author imagines that he has two close friends whom he is addressing.
"These are attributes our minds have indicated *** their affirmation along with the apparent meaning of the Qur'an"
Meaning that reason and revelation have agreed in indicating them. Our minds have indicated their affirmation along with the apparent meaning of the Qur'an.