I say: Al-Nasrābādhī intended to distinguish between someone who seeks bliss in created things and someone who seeks bliss in his portion from the Creator. Thus he said that whatever is in creation endures because He sustains it, whereas His love for you and His remembrance of you endure by virtue of His everlastingness. He did not mean that the everlastingness attributed to the Lord is an attribute additional to the essence by virtue of something that is not an attribute, as debated by the speculative theologians, including those who affirm the divine attributes and others. Indeed, Judge Abū Bakr, whom al-Qushayrī venerates and describes as unrivalled in his time, used to say, “That which endures does not endure by virtue of an attribute of endurance.”

Nor, upon careful examination, does the dispute over this question amount to any substantive point warranting disagreement.

Then Abū al-Qāsim said: Muhammad ibn al-Husayn related to us: I heard al-Nasrābādhī say, “You move between the attributes of action and the attributes of the essence, and both truly belong to Him, exalted is He. When He causes you to wander in the station of differentiation, He draws you near through the attributes of His action; and when He brings you to the station of gathering, He draws you near through the attributes of His essence.”