Some of them hold that this act occurs in time, while others hold that it is beginningless, saying that creating and bringing into being are eternal and without beginning. Among the latter are those who regard the act of creating itself as a single, beginningless entity, with created beings as its material; yet it is eternal and without beginning. They affirm neither descent nor rising over the Throne as subsisting in His own being, because these are occurrences in time. This is the position of the Kullābiyyah, who say that His action is beginningless, like His speech, as the followers of Ibn Khuzaymah maintained. It is also the position of many Hanafīs, Hanbalīs, Mālikīs, and Shāfiʿīs.

Others hold that the kind is beginningless, while its individual instances occur in time. According to this view, the act itself is subject to His power. As for those who regard it as one particular entity, if they say that it is beginningless, they contradict themselves, and their position entails that a particular beginningless entity is subject to His power. If they say that it is not subject to His power, they contradict themselves, because an act must be subject to His power. Allah knows best.

The third view affirms both kinds of acts—intransitive and transitive—as indicated by the Quran. Thus we affirm, as He has told us of Himself, that He created the heavens and the earth in six days, then rose over the Throne. This is the position of the early generations and the imams of the Sunnah. It is also the position of those who say that attributes exercised by His choice subsist in Him, such as the followers of Abū Muʿādh, Zuhayr al-Bābī, and Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī, as well as the Karrāmiyyah and other groups—even though the Karrāmiyyah say that descending and coming are acts subsisting in Him.

They say that He has the power to come, arrive, descend, rise over the Throne, and perform other such acts, as He has told us of Himself. This is perfection.