that the subject in which they subsist had a beginning, affirmed this conclusion, and held that they could subsist only in something that occupies space and only in something that had a beginning, they denied these attributes of Allah Most High. They said: “Whoever affirms them has thereby said that accidents subsist in Him. Since accidents subsist only in something that occupies space, He would therefore occupy space and have a beginning.”
Those who affirm the attributes adopted three approaches in responding to them. The first is the position of those who say that He has attributes, but that these are not accidents—or are not to be called accidents—because an accident is something that arises in its subject and then passes away, whereas His attributes are inseparable from His essence and never depart from it.
This helped strengthen their commitment to the view that accidents do not persist for even two moments, so that this would distinguish Allah’s attributes from those of created beings: the attributes of created beings would be called accidents, but not those of the Creator. On this and similar grounds, they claimed to uphold the Sunnah in asserting that accidents do not persist for two moments, because this