Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states: “Our `Aqeedah (creed) is that of Ahl As-Sunnah wa Al-Jama`ah, the mainstream Muslims. All of the creedal points pertaining to this have been succinctly stated in the standard work entitled “Al-`Aqeedah At-Tahawiyyah” by Imam Abu Ja`far At-Tahawi (239-321 AH); it is worth mentioning that essentially these beliefs are shared by the adherents of the four schools of jurisprudence such as Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi and Hanbali.
With respect to attributes of Allah, this `Aqeedah is based on a number of points:
1. First of all, we believe that we cannot know Allah’s nature except through His own self-disclosure. Therefore, we are not allowed to speculate about divine nature based on our own reason without the aid of revelation; to do so is akin to making an image of God in our minds; it is no different from carving an image for God in a stone or wood.
2. God alone knows how to describe Himself; we do not pretend to be able to describe God better than He Himself; therefore, all of the attributes with which Allah has described Himself in the Qur’an, we affirm them wholly and totally without exception.
3. While affirming these attributes we fully recognize Allah’s incomparability and uniqueness. Therefore, we refuse to make any comparison of the divine attributes with those of the creation. We believe that just as Allah is unique and incomparable in His essence/existence, He is also unique and incomparable in attributes and actions.
4. We refuse to explain them away as merely allegorical.
5. Allah is All-High, and All-Near; He is with us wherever we are.
6. We ever remain conscious of the limitations of human knowledge concerning matters beyond our cognition, while recognizing the reality of knowledge accessible to us.
7. Since Allah Himself has described Himself in the Qur’an saying, “He established Himself upon the Throne, directing all things.” (Yunus: 3), we believe in it without speculating about its modality or picturing it in our minds, while fully affirming His incomparable/unique nature.”