And in the hadith of seeking Allah’s guidance, recorded in the Sahīh:

“O Allah, I seek Your guidance through Your knowledge, and I ask You to grant me ability through Your power, and I ask You of Your immense bounty.”

In the hadith of Shaddād ibn Aws, recorded in the Sunan, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“O Allah, by Your knowledge of the unseen and Your power over creation, keep me alive as long as life is better for me, and cause me to die when death is better for me.”

And in an authentic hadith:

“No, by Your might!”

Examples of this are numerous. It is also recorded in the Sahīh that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, questioned the man who recited “Say, ‘He is Allah, One’” in every unit of prayer while leading others. The man replied, “I love it because it is a description of the Most Merciful.” The Prophet said, “Tell him that Allah loves him.” Thus, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, approved his calling it a description of the Most Merciful. There are also numerous other reports to this effect.

These texts establish that words conveying information about Allah constitute a description of Him. Describing means making something manifest and clear to sight or hearing, as when jurists speak of a garment that reveals the skin or does not reveal it.

Allah Most High says:

“He will repay them for their descriptions.”

And He says:

“Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of might, above what they describe.”

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“A woman must not describe another woman to her husband as though he were looking at her.”

Here, ‘depicting’ means describing. Examples of this are numerous.

The word sifa (‘description’) is a verbal noun: one says wasaftu al-shay’a, asifuhu (‘I described something; I describe it’), with the verbal nouns wasf and sifa. Similarly, wa‘ada (‘he promised’) has the verbal nouns wa‘d and ‘ida (‘promising’), and wazana (‘he weighed’) has wazn and zina (‘weighing’).

They also apply a verbal noun to the object of the action. Thus, they call a created thing khalq (‘creation’), and say, ‘a dirham of the ruler’s minting.’ Accordingly, when the One being described is said to encompass all things in mercy and knowledge, the meaning attributed to Him through these words is called an attribute. Mercy, knowledge and power are therefore called attributes in this sense. This is the reality of the matter.