its being knowledgeable. Hence they go on to attribute natural actions to intrinsic forces within bodies, entirely independent of knowledge. Had they claimed that He acts by sheer power that renders knowledge unnecessary, it would still be wrong but less reprehensible than their assertion that He acts by mere knowledge that renders power superfluous—while in truth both claims are false. This is not the place to give a full-length refutation of their statements, for the more a discerning person examines them, the more he perceives their corruption, their inner contradiction, and the fact that these people are among the most ignorant of mankind concerning God, exalted be He.

For this reason, people of sound intellect have unanimously judged their discourse on divine knowledge to be confused; even Ibn Sabʿīn and those like him openly acknowledge as much. Such is the state of these philosophers. Those who countered them did so with an innovated form of kalām that clashes with the Book and the Sunnah, claiming that the Lord was for a time devoid of action and speech—or at least devoid of speech—then later produced speech. Their only scriptural support is the saying, “God was and there was nothing with Him,” yet they possess neither a Qur’anic verse nor a Prophetic ḥadīth to substantiate it.

The negators of the divine attributes further invoke this report to argue that the Qur’an is created and that God has neither knowledge nor power, citing the phrase, “God was and there was nothing with Him.” Many later writers added the words, “and He is now as He ever was,” and some even suppose this to be the speech of the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—though no one has transmitted it from him with a sound or even weak chain. A faction also uses the same phrase to deny that God rose over the Throne and to claim He is not above the universe, saying, “He is now as He ever was.” Yet all people agree that relations and connections are abstract, and that after He created the heavens and the earth new relations and connections—such as His being with the creation and His exaltedness above them—did indeed come into existence.