and he said:

Some people have interpreted this to mean that Allah intended to save Pharaoh bodily from the Fire because he believed when he was drowning. They said that Allah mentioned only Pharaoh’s people entering the Fire, not Pharaoh himself. He said:

‘And he will lead them into the Fire.’

And He said:

‘And the people of Pharaoh were enveloped by the worst punishment.’

He did not say ‘Pharaoh.’

He said: Such is the fabrication of lies against Allah, for Allah Most High says:

‘So Allah seized him with an exemplary punishment in the Hereafter and in this world.’

Likewise, His words:

‘Allah will surely know those who are truthful.’

The recited wording was thus taken to imply newly acquired knowledge in Allah—far exalted is He above acquiring knowledge of anything anew. For whoever has no knowledge of what he intends to make cannot make it; we know this necessarily. He said:

‘Does He who created not know, while He is the Most Subtle, the All-Aware?’

He said: His words, ‘Until We know those who strive,’ mean only: until We see it, so that it is known as something existing. For it is not possible that He should know a thing as nonexistent before it comes into being, yet also know it as already existing. He would then know it at one and the same time as both nonexistent and existent, even though it had not come into being. This is impossible.”

He also discussed this matter in relation to the will.

Later he said:

“Likewise, His words:

‘Indeed, We are with you, listening.’

“This does not mean that hearing newly arises in Him, or that hearing what they say requires any effort. Some among the ‘people of the Sunnah’ held that Allah has an act of listening within His essence. They understood this in terms of what they knew of themselves: that hearing what has been said gives rise to knowledge in them. For when a created being hears, an understanding arises in him through which he comprehends the sound his ear has perceived.

“Likewise, His words:

‘And say, “Work, for Allah will see your deeds, and so will His Messenger.”’

“He does not acquire a newly originated faculty of sight within His essence. Rather, the thing comes into being, and He sees it as existing, just as He has always known it before it came into being.”