Explanation of the author's statement: ". . . . And as for likening the Creator to the created, its meaning is: that one affirms for Allah the Exalted: in His essence

The Shaykh :"And as for likening the Creator to the created, its meaning is that one affirms for Allah the Exalted, in His essence or His attributes, characteristics similar to those affirmed for the created, such as the statement of one who says: 'The hands of Allah are like the hands of the created, and His rising above His Throne is like their rising,' and the like of that". This is likening what to what? The Creator to the created. And no one's foot will ever be established upon this, that he makes the Creator like the created, ever. But some of the extremists in the old days went to this; the first one known for it was Hisham ibn al-Hakam, one of the imams of the Rafidah, who was the first to speak of likening and call to it. As for the later Rafidis, they went to the doctrine of the Mu'tazilah, which is the denial of the attributes, which is the opposite of this. So it is now clear that the likening that led to misguidance is divided or varies into two types: the first is likening the Creator to the created, and the second is likening the created to the Creator. So likening the created to the Creator is that one affirms for the created characteristics that are not for Allah alone. Yes. And the second is that one affirms for the Creator characteristics that are among the characteristics of the created; that one affirms for Allah attributes that are among the attributes of the created. And both are misguidance. Yes.