ceases to have power over whatever He wills, by His will. He has therefore always spoken whenever He wills and however He wills. This is the position of the early generations and the leading imams, such as Ibn al-Mubārak and Ahmad.

Further on, he said:

In Sahīh al-Bukhārī, in a report cited with part of its chain of transmission omitted, Sa‘īd ibn Jubayr relates that a man asked Ibn ‘Abbās about His words:

“And Allah has ever been Forgiving and Merciful.”

“And Allah has ever been Almighty and Wise.”

“And Allah has ever been All-Hearing and All-Seeing.”

It seemed to suggest that He had once been so, but was no longer so. Ibn ‘Abbās replied: “As for His words, ‘And Allah has ever been,’ ‘And Allah has ever been’: He exalts Himself above that and has called Himself by these names; no one other than He has exalted Him. ‘Was’ means that He has always been so.”

‘Abd ibn Humayd narrated this in his Tafsīr with a full, connected chain of transmission. Ibn al-Mundhir also narrated it in his Tafsīr. This is the wording of ‘Abd’s narration. The purpose here is to draw attention to people’s disagreement over the question of divine power.

In truth, anyone who does not adopt the position of the early generations neither affirms power as an attribute of Allah nor affirms that He has power. The position of the Jahmiyyah and their followers, the Mu‘tazilah, and the Qadariyyah—both those who affirm compulsion and those who deny divine decree—amounts to saying that He has no power and possesses no dominion. For dominion must mean either power, that over which power is exercised, or both. On any of these understandings, power is indispensable. Whoever does not affirm real power for Him does not affirm His dominion, just as they do not affirm His praiseworthiness.

Further on, he said:

And (furthermore, the Eternal, the Beginningless, the Self-Sustaining Sustainer of all, the Self-Sufficient, whose existence is intrinsically necessary, who has no need of anything besides Him while everything besides Him needs Him, is more entitled to perfection than a contingent, originated, dependent being. It is therefore impossible for the latter to have the power to speak and act while the Self-Sustaining Sustainer of all