—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—altered, with the effects of hunger visible on him, despite regularly seeing him bowing and prostrating.”
Yet he did not describe his movements as a change. Likewise, people say, “So-and-so has changed toward so-and-so,” when he begins to hate him after having loved him. If his affection remains constant, his warm welcome and conversation with him are not described as a change. When someone follows his customary manner in speech and action, he is not said to have changed. Allah Most High says:
“Indeed, Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.”
It is evident that, when people continue their established practice of saying and doing what is good, they have not changed what is in themselves. But when they depart from that practice, replacing the intention to do good with the intention to do evil, and belief in truth with belief in falsehood, it is said that they have changed what is in themselves. An example is someone who loved Allah, His Messenger, and the Hereafter, but whose heart then changed so that he no longer loves Allah, His Messenger, and the Hereafter. Such a person has changed what is within himself.
If this is the “meaning of change,” then the Lord Most High has always been, and will always be, possessed of the attributes of perfection and characterized by majesty and honour. His perfection is inseparable from His essence. It is therefore impossible for Him to lose any of His attributes of perfection, or to become deficient after being perfect.
“This principle” underlies the statement of the early generations and Ahl al-Sunnah: He has always spoken whenever He wills, has always possessed power, and has always possessed the attributes of perfection. He will always remain so, and thus does not change. This is the meaning of the invocation, “O You who brings about change but does not change!” For He alters the attributes of created beings, stripping them, whenever He wills, of qualities they previously possessed, and granting them qualities of perfection they did not previously possess. His own perfection, however, is inseparable from His essence; He has always been, and will always be, possessed of the attributes of