Thus, in every case it has been established that, prior to created things, there was something distinct from them—whether power alone or, along with it, action, speech, and will. Whatever existed before created things is not itself among created things.

Al-Marīsī’s assertion is therefore refuted:

Whatever is not called Allah is created.

For it is said of these things: (They are other than Allah.)

When we say: (Allah is the Creator, and everything besides Him is created), His attributes are included in what His name denotes, for they fall within the meaning denoted by His name.

When the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Whoever swears by other than Allah has committed shirk,”

swearing by Allah’s might or the like was not swearing by other than Allah.

When the Jahmiyyah emerged and held that the Quran lay outside what the name of Allah Most High denotes, some of the early Muslims said:

(Allah is the Creator, and everything besides Him is created, except the Quran, for it is Allah’s speech, uncreated.)

They thus excepted the Quran from “everything besides Him” because some had included it among what is besides Him. The expression (what is besides Him) is like the expression (other). We have already said: