the will or speech within His essence, which depends upon His eternal power rather than arising through an act of bringing it into existence ن. As for the creation of all other creatures, it depends upon the will or speech, according to their differing positions. They call what is created within His essence a ‘temporal occurrence,’ and what is outside His essence ‘something brought into existence.’ Some of them added two further temporal occurrences: hearing and sight.”

He said: “The Karrāmiyya unanimously agreed that the temporally occurring attributes inhering in His essence neither give rise to any new name for Him nor entail any corresponding predication about Him. Thus, He is not said to be a speaker by virtue of speech, or a willer by virtue of will; rather, He is a speaker by virtue of His being a speaker, and a willer by virtue of His being a willer. Nor did they permit Him to be given, in eternity to come, a new name that He had not previously borne. Rather, they said that all His names are beginningless—even ‘the Creator’ and ‘the Provider’—although there was neither creation nor provision in beginningless eternity.”