to him: “Even supposing this is disputed, he has offered no proof that it is impossible. He has merely said, ‘This is a fault or deficiency, and Allah is free of it.’”

He was then told: “He must mean either the meaning subsisting in the divine essence or the created expressions. The first cannot be intended here, because the question concerns someone who utters an ordered sequence of letters without meaning anything by it, whereas what subsists in the essence is the meaning itself. If you mean the letters—which is what he intends—then, according to you, they are created. You hold that He may create anything and that no act is beneath Him. A fault, in your view, is what you do not will; so this is impossible.”

It thus becomes clear that they have no argument establishing either His truthfulness or His freedom from fault in His speech. Such an argument can only be made by someone who holds that certain acts are unbefitting Him. This also makes clear that they do not affirm His justice, wisdom, mercy, or truthfulness.

The Muʿtazilah, however, seek to affirm these matters. Hence they mention them in their introductory statements concerning the attributes, as Abū al-Husayn al-Basrī and others do. Thus, at the beginning of Suwar al-adillah, there is an introductory statement to the effect that Allah is One and just:

“He does not wrong people in the least, but it is people who wrong themselves.”

And:

“Indeed, Allah is Most Kind and Merciful to people.”

I believe it also affirms His truthfulness. Hence they declare anyone who attributes injustice, falsehood, or folly to Him, or likens Him to others, to be a disbeliever. Nevertheless, they have erred on many points, as has been pointed out elsewhere on several occasions. Each of the two groups therefore possesses both truth and falsehood. The truth in its entirety has been embraced only by those who followed the Emigrants and the Helpers and believed in everything the Messenger brought in accordance with