the act of rising above, without His already being described as One who would perform that act; thus He is designated by it among His acts. Likewise, Allah Most High says:

‘And your Lord has come and the angels, rank upon rank.’

This means that He will come. He did not acquire the name upon coming; rather, the act was deferred until the time of His coming. Thus He has come and will come, and His coming will actually occur without modality or likeness attaching to it, for this is an act of Lordship. The mind grows weary and the soul falters when one seeks to determine how the One worshipped is. Therefore, do not incline towards either extreme: neither deny His attributes nor liken Him to creation. Accept for Allah what He has accepted for Himself, and stop at what He has revealed about Himself, accepting, submitting, and believing, without debates that provoke aversion or comparisons that invite probing.”

He went on to say:

“He—blessed and exalted is He—is the One who says, ‘I am Allah,’ not the tree; the One who comes even before He comes—not His command; the One who manifests Himself to His close servants in the Hereafter, so that through Him their faces become radiant and their argument prevails against the deniers; the One who has risen above His Throne in the greatness of His majesty, above every place—blessed and exalted is He; the One who spoke directly to Moses and showed him some of His signs. Moses thus heard Allah’s speech, for He brought him near for intimate converse.

“He is too holy for His speech to be created, newly originated, or subject to a lord. He is the Inheritor, through His creation, of His creatures; the One who hears their voices and looks with His eye upon their bodies. His two hands are outstretched, and they are not His favour. He created Adam and breathed into him of His spirit—which is His command. Exalted and holy is He, above dwelling within a body, mingling with a body, or being in contact with it. Far exalted is He above that.

“He is the One who wills, possessing will; the One who knows, possessing knowledge; the One who extends His hands with mercy; the One who descends every night to the lowest heaven so that there may draw near