, just as this is the apparent sense of all the other names and attributes applied to Him, glorified is He, such as life, knowledge, power, hearing, sight, speech, will, love, anger, and pleasure—as in His words:

“What prevented you from prostrating to what I created with My two hands?”

and:

“Our Lord descends to the lowest heaven every night,”

and other such expressions. When applied to us, the apparent sense of these expressions denotes accidents or bodies, because that is the nature of our own essences. When applied to Allah, glorified and exalted is He, however, their apparent sense is only what befits His majesty and His noble Self.

Thus, the terms “essence,” “existence,” and “reality” are applied both to Allah and to His servants, retaining their apparent sense in both usages, while it is firmly understood that their apparent sense with respect to Allah is neither equivalent to their apparent sense with respect to us nor shares with it anything that entails imperfection or having come into existence. This holds whether these terms are considered univocal, equivocal, or applicable in differing degrees. The same applies to His words:

“He sent it down with His knowledge,”

“Indeed, Allah is the Provider, the Possessor of Strength, the Firm,”

“What I created with My two hands,”

and:

“The Most Merciful rose over the Throne.”

The same principle applies to all of these.

The early Jahmiyyah denied all attributes of Allah that, in us, are accidents, such as knowledge and power, or bodies, such as the hand and face. Their later followers affirmed many of the attributes that, in us, are accidents, such as knowledge and power, while denying some of them, as well as the attributes that, in us, are bodies. Among them were also those who affirmed some of the attributes that, in us, are bodies, such as the hand.