that you were the Messenger of Allah, we would not have fought you. But write: ‘Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh.’”

These people were seized by the pride of ignorance when it came to affirming Allah’s names and His Messenger’s prophethood. The heretics share this with them in many respects, for they deny the real meanings of Allah’s names and the reality of His Messenger’s mission, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. At most, they believe in them in one respect and disbelieve in another, like those who said: “We believe in some and disbelieve in others.”

It should also be said to him: An essence without attributes exists only in the mind. Indeed, the word dhāt (essence) is the feminine form of dhū (possessor), and is used only in a genitive construction. Dhāt means “possessor,” as in the words of Allah Most High:

“All-Knowing of what is within the hearts.”
Āl ‘Imrān 119

And His words:

“So fear Allah and set right the relations between yourselves.”
Al-Anfāl 1

And Khubayb’s words:

“And that is for the sake of God.”

That is, in God’s cause and directed toward Him.

The speculative theologians then used it with the definite article, saying al-dhāt (the essence), meaning “the possessor”—that is, the possessor of attributes.

Thus, to posit something that necessarily requires a genitive complement without that complement is impossible. This is like what Ibn Sīnā and others among these heretics affirmed, making Him absolute existence, either on condition of