Tafwid (delegating the knowledge of the manner of the attributes)

Tafwid (delegation) in the attributes of God is affirming the wording of the attributes found in the Qur'an and the Sunna, while leaving aside any inquiry into their modality and committing their knowledge to God, as Ibn Qudama sets out in Lum'at al-i'tiqad. Within the question there is disagreement among the people of the Sunna over the interpretation of the sayings of the early generations: did they deny knowledge of the meaning, or only of the modality? ¹

Is it enough to affirm the wording of the attributes while delegating their modality, or must their meanings be affirmed as befits God?

Ibn Qudama says in Lum'at al-i'tiqad that what is obscure among the attributes must be affirmed in wording, and that its meaning is left alone. He attributes this to the early generations, naming al-Shafi'i, Ahmad, Malik, Sufyan al-Thawri, al-Awza'i, and others, with the phrase "let them pass as they came, without asking how." He rejects the method of the theologians in interpretation. ¹

Ibn Taymiyya, in al-Hamawiyya, as the editor cites in the margins, argues that the saying of the early generations "the istiwa' is not unknown and the modality is not conceivable" shows that the meaning is known, for otherwise istiwa' would be unknown like the letters of the alphabet. For him, the early generations denied knowledge of the modality, not knowledge of the reality of the attribute. ²

A further source is needed: the data do not yet give an academic view.