speak using names and letters whose counterparts occur in the speech of Allah Most High. Yet Allah Most High spoke them with His own voice and His own letters, and that is uncreated. The attributes of Allah Most High do not resemble the attributes of His servants.

For nothing is like Allah Most High, whether in His essence, His attributes, or His acts. The voice with which He will call His servants on the Day of Resurrection, and the voice that Moses heard from Him, are unlike the voices of any created beings. The audible voice consists of letters arranged together, and nothing among the attributes of created beings resembles those letters, just as Allah’s knowledge, which subsists in His essence, is unlike the knowledge of His servants. Allah does not resemble created beings in any attribute. He, glorified is He, has taught His servants whatever He wills of His knowledge, as He Most High says:

“They encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He wills.”

When Allah teaches them whatever He teaches them of His knowledge, His knowledge itself, which is His attribute, is not created, whereas the servants themselves and their attributes are created. Someone may, however, consider what the term “knowledge” denotes without qualification. It must not then be said that such knowledge is created, since the Lord possesses this attribute, even though the knowledge possessed by a servant is created.

The underlying principle is that any attribute ascribed both to Allah and to His servants is ascribed to Allah in a manner befitting Him, and to His servants in a manner befitting them. Examples include life, knowledge, power, hearing, sight, and speech. Allah possesses life, knowledge, power, hearing, sight, and speech. His speech contains letters, and He speaks with His own voice. A servant likewise possesses life, knowledge, power, hearing, sight, and speech,