that is, the self characterized by attributes. Thus, when these people speak emphatically of “the essence,” they mean only the actual self, which has a description and possesses attributes.

The terms sifah (attribute) and wasf (description) sometimes refer to the words used to describe their subject, as when the Companion said concerning “Say: He is Allah, the One”:

“I love it because it describes the Most Merciful.”

At other times, they refer to the meanings conveyed by those words, such as knowledge and power. The Jahmiyyah, the Muʿtazilah, and others deny these meanings, saying that attributes are merely the expressions used to describe their subject. The Kullābiyyah and their followers among those who affirm the attributes may distinguish between sifah and wasf, taking wasf to mean the statement and sifah to mean the attribute subsisting in the subject described. Most people, however, know that both sifah and wasf are originally verbal nouns, like waʿd and ʿidah (promising), or wazn and zinah (weighing), and that each may be used in either of these two senses.

Since those Jahmiyyah deny that any attribute subsists in Allah—knowledge, power, will, or speech, all of which Muslims affirm—they began saying:

“These people have affirmed attributes additional to the essence.”

Some of their opponents who affirm the attributes have come to accept this formulation, saying:

“The attributes are additional to the essence they have described—an essence possessing attributes and a description.”

They thereby give people the impression that there is an essence distinct from the attributes, and that it possesses attributes distinct from the essence. Those who deny the attributes raise various allegations to vilify this position, which this is not the place to discuss. We have already demonstrated their invalidity elsewhere.