—as has been explained elsewhere—some of them have begun to say, “He is an existent, living, knowing Being,” while another group says, “He is an existent, knowing, powerful Being,” substituting “powerful” for “living” and identifying the Holy Spirit with power.

Even though this wording is in one respect the sounder of the two, interpreting the Holy Spirit as mere power is exceedingly far-fetched, and its falsehood is plain to everyone.

Furthermore, they must still affirm the hypostasis of the Word, which they sometimes call knowledge, at other times wisdom, and at yet other times “speech,” as they do in this very book of theirs. Because, in their view, it is the hypostasis of the Word that was united with Christ, they occasionally attach life to it and on other occasions attach power to it.

Regarding the Father, they sometimes say He is existence, sometimes self-subsistence, sometimes the essence—the term “self-subsistent” being rendered in Syriac as kyān—and sometimes generosity or goodness.

All of this is nothing but confusion and error; for they cannot locate three meanings that, to the exclusion of all other attributes, merit being called “substantial,” whether “substantial” is taken to mean “substances,” “essential constituents,” or anything else.

They also say that these three “function as names.” If by that they mean proper names or non-derived nouns while the rest are attributes, then the names al-Hayy (the Living) and al-ʿAlim (the All-Knowing) are derived terms that point to the realities of life and knowledge, just as al-Qadir (the All-Powerful) points to power. And if they mean that He may be named by them, Allah Most High has many names indeed, for His are the Most Beautiful Names.