a person may mention Allah and think of Him without being aware at that moment of all the meanings of His names. Indeed, it may not even occur to him then that He is Almighty and All-Wise. It is thus possible to know one without the other. If this is what is meant by “other,” it indicates only a distinction in the human mind, since a person may know one without the other. This does not negate their inseparability in reality: these meanings are mutually inseparable. The essence cannot exist without these meanings, nor can these meanings exist without the essence.

When one says, “Praise be to Allah,” or “In the name of Allah,” the name “Allah” encompasses His essence and His attributes; it does not denote an essence devoid of attributes, nor attributes devoid of an essence. The imams of the Sunnah—such as Ahmad and others—have explicitly stated that His attributes are included in what His names designate. Thus, one should not say that Allah’s knowledge and power are additional to Him. Some of those who affirm the attributes, however, have said that they are additional to the essence.

If this means that they are additional to the bare essence affirmed by those who deny the attributes, then it is correct. Those people fell short in what they affirmed, so this person affirmed more than they did, saying, “The Lord has attributes beyond what you have recognized.” But if he means that they are additional to the essence as it actually exists, this is a contradictory statement. In reality, there is no bare essence such that the attributes could be said to be additional to it. Rather, the essence cannot exist without the attributes by virtue of which it is an essence, nor can the attributes exist without the essence by virtue of which they are attributes. To imagine one existing without the other, and then the other being added to it, is therefore a false conception.

As for those who say that “the name belongs to the one named,” as most of Ahl al-Sunnah say,