If you say: Why was it not said: He knows the secret for His saying وَأَسَرُّوا النَّجْوَى? [Mamdouh said: "If you say, why did he not stick to His saying He knows the secret, while the preceding verse is وَأَسَرُّوا النَّجْوَى ... etc." Ahmad said:

And this is following the Qur'an with opinion, we seek refuge in Allah from that, especially an opinion that negates the attributes of perfection from Allah, glorified and exalted is He. What has indicated the سَمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ to the negation of the attributes of hearing and knowledge by interpreting them in that way, while it is not understood in the language that سميع is anything but by hearing, and that عليم is anything but by knowledge? For they are attributes derived from sources that must first be understood and established, then what they are derived from must be established. Whoever denies hearing and knowledge has hastened to deny السميع العليم without realizing it. Our aim in this compilation is only to awaken what the commentator has concealed of the dangers of innovations so that the observer may avoid them. As for the rational evidence, it is received from its art. His state regarding what he presents of such insinuations is varied: sometimes he presents it in a context that superficially seems to imply his intention, so our duty with him then is to dispute the apparent meaning, and then we may advance to clarify its appearance in the opposite of his intention or its textuality, so that it cannot be interpreted as he claims in any way. And fairness may compel us to concede the appearance to him, so we mention the way of interpretation that reason guides to. At other times, he presents a snippet of this opinion in a context that does not support it or imply it in any way, and his aim is to be evasive so that nothing in his speech is free from bias and insistence on falsehood, and we also point that out. What he mentioned regarding this verse is of the kind that the text indicates the opposite of his intention in it, and we have clarified that.