Explaining the differences among Islamic sects in their understanding of this verse: “There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearer, the Seer.”

Know that this verse was used as evidence by the *ta'til* (denial of the divine attributes) group, the *tashbih* (likening Allah to creation) group, and the people of the Sunnah. All three groups: the *tashbih* group, the *ta'til* group, and the people of the Sunnah. The *tashbih* group said: Affirmation implies likeness, because Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He—this is their argument—addressed us with the Qur'an, and Allah made the Qur'an in the Arabic language so that we might understand and comprehend. Allah the Exalted said: They said: If Allah addressed us with something of what He described Himself with, it is obligatory that we interpret it according to what we understand. And we do not understand except what we perceive with our senses, so it is obligatory to interpret every attribute of Allah according to what is known to us. Therefore, they said: Allah the Exalted is like His creation. May Allah grant us safety. And if He were like us, we would not have worshipped Him, and it is not possible for a human to worship his like. But with their misguided intellects, they said: It is necessary that what Allah informed us of regarding His attributes be like our attributes. What is the argument? That Allah addressed us with what we understand and comprehend, and we do not understand except what we see. So if He addressed us about something unseen, it is obligatory to interpret it according to what is known to us.
The *ta'til* group used as evidence His saying: And they said: Every attribute that Allah affirmed for Himself indicates likeness, so it must be denied. Those who opened the door for them are the *tashbih* group, who say: Every attribute that Allah affirmed for Himself necessitates likening, and likening is impossible. Therefore, every attribute must be denied. For example, they say: Allah, Mighty and Majestic, did not rise above the Throne in a true sense of rising, because if He had risen above the Throne, He would be a body and would be like the created beings. So imagine now: they imagined that Allah's rising above His Throne is like a human's rising above livestock. When they understood it this way, they denied the rising. A human rises above a camel, as the Exalted said: They understood that Allah's rising above the Throne is like a human's rising above a camel or livestock. And they said: This is likening, and likening is impossible for Allah, so it must be denied.
This is the statement of the Mu'tazilah, the Jahmiyyah, and those similar to them. They denied every attribute of Allah and said: It is not possible to describe Allah with anything. What is the argument? That affirmation necessitates likening, and Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has denied having a like. Also, likeness is impossible by intellect, so intellect—according to their claim—indicates, along with the Shari'ah, that Allah has no like. Therefore, we must deny all attributes. In reality, their matter is that they first likened, and then they denied. They first likened by believing that the evidence indicates likening, and this is a defective belief. Then, after that, they denied and rejected. But this argument is easily refuted. We say to them: Do you affirm existence for Allah? Either they say: No, or they say: Yes, is that not so? They cannot escape it. Either they say: Yes, or they say: No. If they affirm existence for Allah, we say: Is it a real existence or an illusory one? If they say: Illusory, they have committed disbelief, and there is no doubt in that. If they say: Real, we say: Fine, do you affirm existence for yourselves? Either they say: Yes, or they say: No. If they say: No, we say: We do not address shadows with nothing in them. But they will not say: No. They will say: Yes, we affirm existence for ourselves. We say: Then likening is necessary for you, because you affirmed for Allah the Exalted an attribute that is established for the created being, so likening is necessary for you. See, falsehood must be refuted. But some people escaped this necessity, the extremists, and they said: We do not say that Allah exists. I seek refuge in Allah. Whom do you worship? They said: We do not say that Allah exists. We said: Non-existent. If you say: Not existing, it is necessary for you to say: He is non-existent. If you say: He is non-existent, you have likened, because the existing among the created beings is non-existent before his existence and after his existence. Allah the Exalted said: And this is a reality. One of us, two years before his birth, is nothing, non-existent. So if you say that Allah is non-existent, you have likened and compared according to your principle. They said: Then we say: Neither existing nor non-existent. I seek refuge in Allah: Neither existing nor non-existent. We say: Allah is Greater. Is it possible for a thing to be neither existing nor non-existent? Everything is either existing or non-existent, because the opposition of existence and non-existence is a contradiction, and of two contradictories, one must exist. They cannot both exist, nor can both be denied. So if they say: Neither existing nor non-existent, we say: You have now likened Him to the impossible and the impossible-to-be. So the people of falsehood have no escape from their false necessities.
Some people were stubborn and said: We do not say that He is not described with an attribute, but we describe Him with what we judge Him by, not with what He judges Himself by. Listen, they said: We do not deny the attributes, but we describe Him with what we judge Him by, not with what He judges Himself by. These stubborn ones are the Asha'irah. They affirmed some attributes and denied most of the attributes. They affirmed seven attributes and denied the rest. They affirmed life, knowledge, power, hearing, sight, will, and speech, and denied the rest. They said: We do not affirm any attributes in a true sense except these seven attributes. These are established in reality, although there is a difference between them and the people of the Sunnah regarding some of them. Speech with them is not the same as speech with the people of the Sunnah. And the rest, we do not affirm. What do you do with them? They said to us: There are two ways: either *tafwid* (delegation), where we say: We do not know its meaning, or *ta'wil* (figurative interpretation), which they call *ta'wil*, but in reality it is *tahrif* (distortion of a text's meaning). The Asha'irah are the most widespread people in the Islamic lands. Therefore, it is obligatory that we know their school of jurisprudence completely, and know the refutation of them, so that this school may shrink or disappear entirely. And we ask Allah the Exalted to remove it to the truth. We ask Allah the Exalted to encompass us and you with His mercy, and to guide us and you to what He loves and is pleased with.