whatsoever. This amounts to distorting words from their proper meanings. As for the terms “life” and “continued existence,” they cannot mean the living being itself, since these denote attributes, whereas the being itself is the subject of those attributes. Whoever believes that “self,” as applied to the Creator and to created beings, denotes an attribute and an accident, rather than a subject of attributes and a substance, and places its referent in the same category as those of “life” and “continued existence,” has misunderstood the Arabic language as well as the Quran and hadith.

They say: “This would make it permissible to say that Allah is a self and to invoke Him by saying, ‘O Self, forgive us.’ Yet the Muslim community has unanimously agreed that this is impermissible.”

This may be answered in several ways. First, their objection can be turned against them with respect to the terms “essence,” “subject of attributes,” “self-subsisting,” “reality,” “distinct from His creation,” and the like. If it is permissible to say, “O Essence, O Subject of Attributes, O Self-subsisting One, O Reality, O One distinct from His creation, forgive us,” then it is permissible to say, “O Self”; otherwise, it is not.

Second, Allah is invoked only by His Most Beautiful Names. These are the names that denote Him Himself and express those of His attributes that convey praise and commendation of Him. As for expressions that indicate nothing beyond existence as such and the like, He is not invoked by them, just as He, glorified be He, is not invoked by names indicating His creation of harm