Ibn 'Abbās said:

“Belief in divine decree is what holds belief in Allah’s oneness together. Whoever affirms Allah’s oneness and believes in divine decree has perfected his belief in His oneness; whoever affirms Allah’s oneness but denies divine decree has nullified his belief in His oneness through that denial.”

As for Allah’s attributes, they are included in what His explicit names and the pronouns referring to Him denote. When you say, “I worshipped Allah,” “I called upon Allah,” or “You alone we worship,” nothing of His attributes—His knowledge, mercy, speech or any other attribute—is excluded from this designation. For this reason, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Whoever wishes to swear an oath, let him swear by Allah or remain silent.”

He also said:

“Whoever swears by other than Allah has committed shirk.”

Yet it is authentically established that he swore “by Allah’s might” and used the oath “By Allah’s life.” It is therefore clear that this is not swearing by other than Allah.

They thus gave these explicit verses their due by accepting the universal scope they expressly affirm: that Allah is the Creator of all things. For it is known that Allah Himself is not included among created things, and that His attributes are not excluded from what His name denotes.

As for the Mu'tazilah, who combined Jahmī and Qadarī doctrines, they excluded from these verses’ scope things unquestionably encompassed by the expression: the actions of angels, jinn, human beings and animals, whether acts of obedience or otherwise. These constitute a considerable part of Allah’s dominion and His signs. Indeed, they are among the finest features of His dominion and the greatest of His signs and creations. Yet they included His speech among created things because it is called a “thing,” as in His saying:

“When they said, ‘Allah has not sent down anything to any human being.’ Say, ‘Who sent down the Book that Moses brought?’”

They failed to consider that this is like His calling His knowledge a “thing” in His saying: “And they do not encompass