al-ʿAzīz, and al-Qāḍī (1) among others. Al-Qāḍī (2) nevertheless cites two opinions regarding creating (khalq): is it identical with the created thing, or is it something distinct from it? His settled view is that creating is other than the created entity, although Ibn ʿAqīl disagreed with them. The same position is reported by Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Kalābādhī in his book The Creed of the Sufis (3), and by the foremost scholars of hadith and sunnah.
Al-Bukhārī, at the end of the Ṣaḥīḥ (4), in the Book of Refutation of the Jahmiyyah and the Zanādiqah—under the chapter “What has been reported about the fashioning of the heavens, the earth, and other creatures” (5)—states: “This is an act of the Lord and a command of His; thus the Lord, together with His attributes, His act, His command, and His speech, …”
(1) He is Qadi Abu Yaʿla. His biography was provided above.
(2) He mentions this in his Kitab Ibtal al-Taʾwilat li-Akhbar al-Sifat (Refutation of Allegorical Interpretations of the Reports on the Divine Attributes), manuscript, fols. 147–150, in the chapter referred to above.
(3) He is Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn Isḥaq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Kalabādhī al-Ḥanafī (d. 380 AH). I did not find a work under that exact title; the sources instead refer to his Kitab al-Taʿarruf li-Madhhab Ahl al-Taṣawwuf (Introduction to the Doctrine of the People of Sufism), printed in the margins of al-Ghazālī’s Ihyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn (The Revival of the Religious Sciences) in 1321 AH and published separately in Cairo in 1933 AH, with several commentaries. See: Kashf al-Ẓunūn by Ḥājjī Khalīfa, vol. 1, pp. 53, 163, 225; Hīdāyat al-ʿĀrifīn by al-Baghdādī, vol. 2, p. 54; Muʿjam al-Muʾallifīn by al-Kaḥḥāla, vol. 8, p. 222; History of Arabic Literature (Tarīkh al-Adab al-ʿArabī) by F. Brockelmann, vol. 4, p. 81; and Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums by F. Sezgin, vol. 1, 4/173 (Creeds and Sufism). The sheikh also cites that work—Kitab al-Taʿarruf—in his Risāla fī al-Jawāb ʿamman yaqūl inna ṣifāt Allāh nisab wa-iḍāfāt (Treatise in Response to Those Who Say That God’s Attributes Are Relations and Annexations), included in Jāmiʿ al-Rasāʾil wa al-Masāʾil, vol. 1, p. 160. It reads:
“… al-Kalabādhī devoted a chapter to this, stating: ‘… al-khalq wa al-takwīn wa al-fiʿl are attributes of Allah, by which He was described from eternity; action is not something acted upon, and likewise giving life (al-takhliq) and formation (al-takwīn)…’.”
See: Kitab al-Taʿarruf li-Madhhab Ahl al-Taṣawwuf by al-Kalabādhī, p. 38.
(4) Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Book of Tawḥīd, vol. 8, p. 187.
(5) In the original: wa naḥwuhumā (“and similar to them”). In some copies: wa naḥwuhā (“and similar to it”). The reading authenticated by Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī.