“If you say that when an attribute subsists in a subject, that subject alone is described by it—as you have stated regarding motion, knowledge, power, and all other accidents—then your principle is contradicted by justice, beneficence, and other acts of Allah Most High. For He is called just on account of justice He creates in another, and beneficent on account of beneficence He creates in another. Likewise, He may be called a speaker on account of speech He creates in another.”

The majority of Ahl al-Sunnah and others respond by consistently upholding this principle. They say that He is just only by virtue of the justice that subsists in His own Essence, and beneficent by virtue of the beneficence that subsists in His own Essence. As for the created benefit received by the servant, it is the effect of that beneficence. Likewise, He is the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy, by virtue of the mercy that is His attribute; whatever mercy He creates is an effect of that mercy.

A term denoting an attribute sometimes refers to the attribute itself, as denoted by the verbal noun, and sometimes to its object, as denoted by the passive participle. Thus, “creation” sometimes refers to the act of creating and sometimes to what is created. “Mercy” likewise refers to either. Similarly, “command” may refer to His commanding—the verbal noun in the sequence “he commanded, he commands, commanding”—and sometimes to what is brought about by it, as in His saying, Most High:

“Allah’s command is a decree determined.”

Likewise, the word “knowledge” may refer to what is known, and “power” to the object of power. There are numerous similar examples.

Among the proofs Imām Ahmad and other leading scholars of the Sunnah cited to establish that Allah’s speech is uncreated was the Prophet’s saying, peace be upon him:

“I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah,”

and similar expressions. They said that refuge is not attained through anything created. Comparable to this is the saying of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“O Allah, I seek refuge in Your pleasure from Your wrath, in Your pardon from Your punishment, and in You from You.”