Ibn Taymiyyah said: Everything that is used as evidence to deny Allah’s descent, His istiwa, His pleasure, and His anger, another opponent could use something similar to deny His will, His hearing and sight, His power, and His knowledge.
And everything that is used as evidence to deny His power, knowledge, hearing, and sight, another opponent could use something similar to deny that He is All Knowing, All Powerful, All Hearing, and All Seeing. And everything that is used as evidence to deny these names, another opponent could use something similar to deny that He exists at all, or that He is the Necessary Existent.
And it is known by necessity that there must be an existent, eternal, necessary by Himself, to whom non existence is impossible. For the existent is either possible and originated, or necessary and eternal.
The possible and originated cannot exist except through a necessary and eternal One. So if what is used as evidence to deny the affirmed attributes necessitates denial of the necessary, eternal existence, and the denial of that necessitates denial of existence altogether, then it is clear that whoever negates any of the affirmed attributes using such an argument, his statement necessitates negating the very existent that is witnessed.
For example, if someone says: descent, istiwa, and the like are attributes of bodies, and nothing is understood of descent and istiwa except from a body composed, and Allah, exalted is He, is far above such things, so He must be above what they entail, or if he says: these are occurrences, and occurrences cannot exist except in a body composed. Likewise, if he says: pleasure, anger, joy, and love are attributes of bodies.
It is said to him: in the same way, will, hearing, sight, knowledge, and power are attributes of bodies, for just as we do not conceive of one who descends, ascends, is angered, and is pleased except as a body, likewise we do not conceive of one who hears, sees, wills, knows, and is powerful except as a body.
So if it is said: His hearing is not like our hearing, His sight is not like our sight, His will is not like our will, and likewise His knowledge and His power, it is said in response: and likewise His pleasure is not like our pleasure, His anger is not like our anger, His joy is not like our joy, and His descent and His istiwa are not like our descent and our istiwa.
So if he says: in what is witnessed, anger is not understood except as the boiling of the heart’s blood in desire for revenge, and descent is not understood except as moving from one space to another, and moving requires vacating one space and occupying another, and if He descended there would remain no Lord above the Throne.
It is said to him: in what is witnessed, will is not understood except as the inclination of the heart toward acquiring what is needed and beneficial, and away from what is harmful, which indicates dependence on other than oneself.
But Allah, exalted is He, as He informed about His own noble self in His sacred hadith, said: “O My servants, you cannot harm Me and you cannot benefit Me.” So He is exalted above a will such as what is understood in the witnessed.
And likewise, in what is witnessed, hearing is not understood except by a sound entering the ear canal, and that does not occur except in a hollow body. But Allah, exalted is He, is One, al Samad, far above that. And likewise, in what is witnessed, sight and speech are not understood except in a hollow body, but Allah, exalted is He, is One, al Samad, far above that.
Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (5/351-353)
