and said: ‘Why do some people scrupulously abstain from things in which I avail myself of a concession? By Allah, I know Allah better than any of you and fear Him more than any of you.’” Another version reads:

“By Allah, I fear Allah more than any of you and know His limits better than any of you.”

He thus identified knowledge of Allah with knowledge of His limits. Similar to this is what one of the Successors said in describing the Commander of the Faithful, ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib—may Allah be pleased with him:

“Allah was indeed great in my heart, and I was indeed knowledgeable concerning dhāt Allāh (that which pertains to Allah).”

By this he meant Allah’s rulings. In their usage, the word dhāt did not have the meaning it acquired in the terminology of later scholars; rather, it referred to what pertains to Allah. Thus Khubayb—may Allah be pleased with him—said:

“This is for God’s sake; and if He wills,
He will bless the limbs of a body torn apart.”

Another example is the hadith:

“Abraham told only three lies, all of them for Allah’s sake.”

Examples also include the words of the Most High:

“So fear Allah and set things right between you.”

“And He knows well what is within the hearts.”

And there are other similar expressions. Dhāt is the feminine form of (dhū). This word is used with a following noun in a genitive construction, enabling something to be described through nouns denoting kinds of things. If what is being described is masculine, one says dhū such-and-such; if feminine, dhāt such-and-such—as in dhāt siwār (a woman wearing a bracelet).

Thus, if one says, “So-and-so suffered harm fī dhāt Allāh,” the meaning is in His cause and for His sake: that is, in pursuing what He has commanded and loves, and on His account.

Then, because attributes are ascribed to the self, the self too is said to be dhāt ʿilm wa-qudrah wa-kalām—possessing knowledge, power, speech, and so forth. They omitted the following genitive complement and made the word definite, saying: “the essence characterized by attributes.”