Himself and then did not enter into them, he has abandoned his entire position. This explicitly shows that His Self is He Himself—His Essence—not an attribute of His Essence. For if the intended meaning were that He created them within His attribute or outside His attribute, this division would not be exhaustive, since He could create them in the place where He Himself is.

Moreover, if he says that He created them within Himself, he has disbelieved; and if he says that He created them outside Himself and then entered into them, this too is disbelief, since he claims that He entered every place and every filthy, vile privy. This shows that it is the Creator Himself who is supposed to have created them outside Himself and then Himself entered into them. If the intended meaning were that He created them outside one of His attributes, the supposition would then be that this attribute entered into them afterwards, not that He Himself did so.

The same applies to his statement: “And if he says that He created them outside Himself and then did not enter into them, he has abandoned his entire position; this is the position of Ahl al-Sunnah.” That is, the world is separate from the Essence of Allah, exalted is He. We have already expounded Ahmad’s statement in its proper place and shown that this rational argument of his is among the finest arguments self-evident to reason.