Many of the Mu‘tazilites and others like them maintain that wasf (‘description’) and sifa (‘attribute’) refer only to verbal statements, without any meanings subsisting in the eternal Essence. Many theologians who affirm the divine attributes distinguish between wasf and sifa, saying that wasf is the verbal statement, whereas sifa is the meaning subsisting in the one described. Discerning scholars, however, know that each of these two terms is sometimes applied to the statement and sometimes to the meaning. The Quran and Sunnah explicitly affirm the existence of such meanings as knowledge, power and others, as we have already explained.

As for the word dhāt (‘essence’), it is, in Arabic, the feminine form of dhū (‘possessor of’). This form is used in a genitive construction with common nouns as a means of describing something by them. Thus one says, ‘a person possessed of knowledge, wealth and honour,’ referring to his actual being; or ‘an entity or self possessed of knowledge, power, authority,’ and the like.

It may also be joined to proper names, as in Dhū ‘Amr and Dhū al-Kalā‘, and in ‘Umar’s statement: ‘The wealthy one is Bilāl, together with his kin.’

When they found that Allah said in the Quran:

‘You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself,’

‘Allah warns you of Himself,’

and ‘He has prescribed mercy for Himself,’

they described this Self, saying: ‘A Self possessed of knowledge, power, mercy, will,’ and the like. They then omitted the noun being described and made the descriptive word definite, saying al-dhāt (‘the essence’). It is a later coinage, not an ancient term. It does occur in the speech of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and the Companions, but with a different meaning, as in the words of Khubayb recorded in Sahīh al-Bukhārī: