and that He draws near to His servants, comes close to them, descends to the lowest heaven, and comes on the Day of Resurrection after not having been coming.

Some of these scholars may say that “temporally originated events” subsist in His essence. Others refrain from using this expression, either because it has not been transmitted in the religious reports, or because it may suggest a false meaning: that this resembles the inherence of “accidents” in created beings. Similarly, most theologians refrain from calling His attributes accidents, even though they are attributes subsisting in the one described by them, as accidents do.

Ibn al-Khatīb maintained that most schools and rational thinkers acknowledge this position in reality, even if they deny it verbally—including the philosophers, the Muʿtazilah, and the Ashʿarīs.

As for the “philosophers,” they hold that relations exist in external reality, and Allah exists with every temporally originated thing. This “being with” is a temporally originated attribute in His essence. Abū al-Barakāt al-Baghdādī, author of al-Muʿtabar, explicitly affirmed that particular instances of knowledge and will originate in His particular essence. He said that acknowledging Him as the God of this world is inconceivable without affirming this. He then said: “He must be exalted above such exaltation, and declared transcendent above such declarations of transcendence.”

As for the “Muʿtazilah,” the Basrans, such as Abū ʿAlī and Abū Hāshim, maintain that things seen and heard come into existence, and that thereby the qualities of being one who hears and sees arise for Allah. Abū al-Husayn al-Basrī maintains that new instances of knowledge arise in His essence as new objects of knowledge arise.

The Ashʿarīs likewise maintain that nonexistent things were neither heard nor seen, but became heard and seen after coming into existence. Yet hearing and sight, in their view, are not merely relations; rather, they are attributes subsisting in the essence of the All-Hearing,