might, dominion, majesty, and greatness.” Others have sought to rival the Lord in these four qualities, as He said:

“Where are the kings? Where are the tyrants? Where are the arrogant?”

And He, mighty and majestic, said:

“Greatness is My waist-wrapper, and majesty is My cloak. Whoever vies with Me in either of them, I will punish him.”

Those who deny the divine attributes have not esteemed Allah as He deserves. According to them, He neither holds anything, nor grasps it, nor rolls it up. Rather, all of this is impossible for Him, and He is incapable of any of it. In reality, they also say, “Allah has sent down nothing to any human being,” for two reasons.

First: sending something down can only be from above. According to them, Allah Most High is not on high, so nothing has descended from Him. Yet He, exalted is He, said:

“Those to whom We have given the Scripture know that it is sent down from your Lord in truth.”

“The revelation of the Book is from Allah, the Almighty, the All-Wise.”

There are other such verses. Their claim that He created it within a created entity, from which it then descended, is false, for He said:

“Sent down from your Lord.”

Such wording is not used of anything other than the Quran. As for iron, He simply mentioned that He sent it down, without saying that it came from Him; it is brought down from the mountains. Rain is sent down from the sky, meaning that He sends it down from the clouds, as mentioned in His words:

“Is it you who bring it down from the clouds?”

(Second: if it came from a created entity, it would be an attribute of that entity and its speech. For when an attribute inheres in a subject, it is that subject which is characterized by it. Moreover, Allah is not characterized by created things. Were He so characterized, He would be described as emitting sound when He created sounds, and as moving when He created movements in something other than Himself, and so forth.

Further on, he said: It has thus become clear that the Jahmiyyah have not esteemed