These people take meanings such as sound rational concepts and apply ambiguous expressions to them that also encompass what is false and impossible. They are like a Rāfidī (rejectionist) who calls the followers of the Sunnah “Nāsibah” (enemies of the Prophet’s family), thereby suggesting that they harbor enmity toward the Prophet’s household—may Allah be pleased with them.

We have explained elsewhere that every rational person must affirm qualities that subsist in the essence and by which it is described. There is no escaping this except by denying the existence of will. Following this position through to its conclusion necessarily entails that the existence of everything is identical to the existence of the Creator, Most High. This is the ultimate extreme of heresy, and sensory experience, reason, and revelation establish its utter falsity. There is no escape from this except by affirming the attributes while denying any likeness to created beings. This is the religion of those who believe and do righteous deeds.

For those among the philosophers and others who deny the attributes say that the thinker, the object of thought, and the intellect; the lover, the beloved, and love; and pleasure, that which is pleasurable, and the one who experiences pleasure are all one and the same. They say that He is a necessarily existent being possessing providence, and they explain His providence as His knowledge or intellect. They then say that His knowledge or intellect is His essence.

They may also say that He is Living, Knowing, Powerful, Willing, Speaking, Hearing, and Seeing. Yet they say that all of this is one and the same: His will is identical to His power, His power is identical to His knowledge, and His knowledge is identical to His essence.