to Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“We descend only by the command of your Lord. To Him belongs whatever is before us, whatever is behind us, and whatever lies between.”

He would say, “Allah commands you to do such-and-such, and says such-and-such.” No angel can say:

“Indeed, I am Allah. There is no deity except Me, so worship Me.”

Nor can he say:

“Who calls upon Me, that I may answer him? Who asks Me, that I may give to him? Who seeks My forgiveness, that I may forgive him?”

Nor can he say, “No one but Me asks about My servants,” as reported by al-Nasā’ī, Ibn Mājah, and others. Both al-Nasā’ī and Ibn Mājah transmit it with an authentic chain, stating that He says:

“I do not ask anyone else about My servants.”

This also refutes the argument advanced by someone who cited a version transmitted by al-Nasā’ī through one of the hadith’s chains, stating that He commands a herald to make a proclamation. If this is authentically established from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, then the Lord says those words and commands a herald to proclaim accordingly; it does not mean that the herald says, “Who calls upon Me, that I may answer him?” Whoever reports from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that the herald says this, we know that he is lying about the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Besides contradicting the widely disseminated, mass-transmitted wording that the Muslim community has passed down from generation to generation, this is rationally untenable. It is therefore known to be one of the falsehoods fabricated by certain proponents of religious innovation—just as some of them narrated it as yunzilu (“He causes to descend”), with an initial u-vowel, and just as some of them recited, “And Allah spoke directly to Moses,” and other such distortions of both wording and meaning.

If someone interprets this as the descent of His mercy, or something else, he is told: The mercy you affirm must be either a self-subsisting entity or an attribute subsisting in something else.