Thus Allah Most High states in His Book that He “has knowledge of all things,” “has power over all things,” and is “Most Forgiving, Most Merciful,” “Almighty, All-Wise,” and “All-Hearing, All-Seeing”; that He “created the heavens and the earth and everything between them in six days, then rose over the Throne”; that He “loves those who fear Him,” is pleased with the believers and angry with the disbelievers; and that He “does whatever He wills.” He also states that He spoke directly to Moses, called to him from the right side of the Mount, and brought him near for a private conversation; and that He will call to His servants, saying: “Where are My partners whom you used to claim?” There are many other such statements.

Allah Most High also says:

“There is nothing like Him.”

“Do you know of any equal to Him?”

“And there is none comparable to Him.”

He thereby makes clear that Allah has no likeness, equal or peer. Thus none of His attributes can resemble any attribute of created beings, nor can any created being equal or rival Him in any of His attributes—glorified and exalted is He.

The heretics, however, have reversed this approach, likening Him to nonexistent things, impossibilities and contradictions. Their extremists say: He is neither living nor dead, neither knowing nor ignorant, neither hearing nor deaf, neither speaking nor mute. Indeed, they may even say: He is neither existent nor nonexistent, neither something nor not something.

Others say: He is neither inside the world nor outside it, neither separate from the world nor indwelling within it. They use similar expressions to negate mutually opposed alternatives that cannot both be absent. Thus the leading exponents among them say that He is absolute existence.

Some of them then say: He is absolute existence, either with absoluteness stipulated—as maintained by Ibn