act and created thing, He would perform it and create it. He is not described as having always been its agent and Creator in the sense that it existed alongside Him.

If what is meant is that He has always been the agent of acts considered as a kind, this amounts to saying, ‘It has always been the case that He would do whatever He does.’ Yet the former wording suggests false notions that the latter does not.

People hold various views on this matter. The majority of Ahl al-Sunnah say, ‘Allah has always been a Creator and an agent,’ just as Imam Ahmad said, ‘Allah has always been All-Knowing, speaking, and All-Forgiving.’ Indeed, they say, ‘He has always been acting,’ either on the basis that the act is beginningless even though its effect comes into being, or on the basis that successive acts subsist in the agent.

Bishr and his fellow Jahmīs hold that all created things exist without any act or act of creation, and that Allah’s speech is among them. Thus, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz held him to the implications of his own premise, saying:

‘If you say that Allah existed and had not yet acted or created anything, though He had always possessed power, and that He then created all created things, you are saying that He has always possessed power, but not that He has always been bringing created things into being. There must therefore be an act brought about through that power. This act is neither the power that has always existed nor the created thing separate from Him. Otherwise, the created thing would have come into existence without any act of creation, and the effect without any act. This is even more inconceivable to reason than its coming into existence without power, for