subsisting in the Lord. Most people, however, disagreed with them, saying:

It is well known that no attribute or accident comes except through the coming of something else. When people say, “The cold has come,” or “The heat has come,” it is the air carrying the heat and cold that has come, and air is a self-subsisting entity.

When they say, “The fever has come,” fever is heat or cold subsisting in a concrete entity, caused by bodily humours that move and pass from one state to another, thereby producing heat and cold. This differs from an accident that arises without any movement of its bearer, such as the colour of fruit. In this case, people do not say, “Redness, yellowness, and greenness have come”; rather, they say that it is red, yellow, or green.

Since this is so, His sending down justice, tranquillity, drowsiness, and trustworthiness—qualities that subsist in His servants—takes place only when He conveys them to them. Concrete entities are described as descending, just as the angels are described as descending with revelation and the Quran. When the angels descend with these things, they are said to have descended.

The same applies when something other than the angels descends, such as air that descends through the operation of causes. Allah then produces from it the vapour that gives rise to drowsiness. Thus He, glory be to Him, has sent down drowsiness by sending down that which carries it.

He, glory be to Him, has also mentioned sending down iron, although iron is created in mineral deposits. As for the report from Ibn ‘Abbās, may Allah be pleased with them both, that Adam, peace be upon him