Briefly...

Briefly, their saying that Allah has a real hand but not similar to (human) hands is a statement the front of which contradicts the rear. A true hand is an organ that has the well known “how”. Eliminating the “how” is eliminating its reality; they cannot be combined. Add to the above the fact that there are no texts in the Quran or Sunnah like this “without how” at all.

Rather, this is something invented by ideologies to shield themselves in the stance for deterring an opponent from attacking them, accusing them of the charge of personification. For this reason, allama al-Zamakhshari has composed this verse of poetry: They likened Him to His creation, then they were apprehensive Of people, so they hid themselves behind this “without how”.

I wonder, had this phrase sufficed to rebut the charge of personifying and likening, if it suffices in other fields as well such as He, the most Praised One, is said to have a body but not like all other bodies, blood but not like other blood, flesh but not like other flesh, etc.

Even one of those who dared to liken Him has said, “I am too shy to confirm that He has sexual organs and a beard, so excuse me from having to do so and ask what is beyond that.”[^4] Thus, it is quite clear that the Ashari’s belief in the area of descriptive attributes is not out of the framework of one of two following matters: Personifying and likening if applied to Allah, Glory to Him, in their common meanings in minds while preserving their reality, Complication and ambiguity if applied to Allah, Glory to Him, in the common meanings without interpretation and explanation.

People either liken or complicate, personify or blabber! In conclusion, we say that the “proving without how”, though widely spread during, before and after al-Ashari’s time, was later deserted until Ibn Taymiyyah al-Harrani came. He brought it back to life, revived and called it the doctrine of the ancestry, making their faith one of idling and likening.