the essence and the attributes. Both groups ultimately arrived at negation.

The correct position on this matter and others is that of the early generations of the Muslim community and its leading scholars:

He, glorified be He, has always spoken whenever He wills, and He speaks by His will and power. His words have no end. He called to Moses with a voice that Moses heard, and He called to him only when he came, not before that. The Lord’s voice does not resemble the voices of His servants, just as His knowledge does not resemble their knowledge and His power does not resemble their power.

He, glorified be He, is distinct from His creatures in His essence and attributes. Nothing of His essence or of His attributes that subsist in His essence is within His creatures, nor is anything of His creatures within His essence. The views of the proponents of negation and union, who deny the divine essence, attributes, speech, or acts, are false. Likewise, the views of the proponents of indwelling, who affirm indwelling with respect to the essence or the attributes, are false.

These matters are discussed at length elsewhere, and we have expounded them in al-Wājib al-kabīr. Allah knows best what is correct.