And some of them claimed that it is permissible to say: He Almighty has Al-Ḥadd not like the limits, just as we say: a hand not like the hands.
So it is said to him: What compelled us to say: (a hand not like the hands) is only that the hand has been mentioned in the Qurʾān and in the Sunna, so its acceptance became binding, and its rejection was not permissible.
So where is the mention of Al-Ḥadd in the Book and the Sunna so that we may say: (Al-Ḥadd not like the limits), just as we say: (a hand not like the hands)?! Do you see that if an ignorant person said: a head not like the heads, by analogy with our statement: a hand not like the hands, would the argument against him be anything other than the equivalent of what we mentioned regarding Al-Ḥadd, which is that since the mention of the hand came, it became obligatory to profess it, and since the mention of the head did not come, it is not permissible to profess it?!
I say: The people of affirmation who dispute with al-Khaṭṭābī and his peers answer this from several angles:
1 - One of them: That this speech which he mentioned would only be applicable if they had said: He has an attribute which is (Al-Ḥadd), as this refuter against them imagined!
And no one has said this, nor would any sane person say it; for this speech has no reality. Since there is not among the attributes by which any of the described entities are described—just as one is described with the hand and knowledge—a specific attribute called: (Al-Ḥadd). Rather, Al-Ḥadd is that by which a thing is distinguished from other than it in its attribute and its measure, as is well-known from the wording of Al-Ḥadd regarding existent things. So it is said: Al-Ḥadd of a human, and Al-Ḥadd of such-and-such, and they are the attributes distinguishing it. And it is said: Al-Ḥadd of the house, and the garden, and they are its directions and its sides distinguishing it.
وزَعَمَ بَعضُهُم أنَّه جائِزٌ أن يُقال: إنَّ لَهُ تعالى حَدًّا لا كَالحدودِ، كما نقول: يَدٌ لا كالأيدي.
فيقال له: إنَّما أحْوَجَنا إلى أن نقول: (يَدٌ لا كالأيدي)؛ لأن اليدَ قد جاءَ ذكرُها في القرآن وفي السُّنَّة، فلزم قبولها، ولم يجز ردها.
فأين ذكرُ الحدِّ في الكتاب والسُّنة حتى نقول: (حدٌّ لا كالحدود)، كما نقول: (يَدٌ لا كالأيدي؟!) أرأيت إن قال جاهلٌ: رَأْسٌ لا كالرُّؤوسِ، قياسًا على قولنا: يَدٌ لا كالأيدي، هل تكون الحُجَّةُ عليه إلَّا نظير ما ذكرناه في الحدِّ من أنه لما جاء ذكر اليد وجب القول به ولمّا لم يجيء ذكرُ الرَّأسِ لم يجز القول به؟!
قلت: أهل الإثبات المُنازعون للخطابي وذويه يجيبون عن هذا بوجوه:
١ - أحدها: أن هذا الكلام الذي ذكره إنما يتوجه لو قالوا: إن له صفة هي (الحد) كما توهمه هذا الرَّادُّ عليهم!
وهذا لم يَقُله أحدٌ، ولا يقوله عاقلٌ؛ فإن هذا الكلام لا حقيقة له؛ إذ ليس في الصِّفات التي يُوصف بها شيءٌ من الموصوفات - كما يوصف باليَدِ والعِلمِ - صفةٌ مُعينةٌ يُقال لها: (الحدُّ)، وإنما الحدُّ ما يتميَّز به الشيء عن غيره من صِفَتِهِ وقَدْرِهِ، كما هو المعروف من لَفْظِ الحدِّ في الموجودات، فيقال: حدُّ الإنسان، وحَدُّ كذا، وهي الصِّفاتُ المُمَيِّزةُ له، ويُقال: حدُّ الدَّار، والبُستان، وهي جِهاتُهُ وجَوانبهُ المُمَيِّزةُ له.
