Al-Bukhārī also said:

“Mujāhid said concerning His words, ‘Then He rose over the Throne’: ‘He rose above the Throne.’”

Yet one may speak of being “high above something” (‘alā ‘alā) or “exalted beyond something” (‘alā ‘an). The latter occurs in several places in the Quran, though with the verb ta‘ālā (“He is exalted”), as in His words:

“Glorified and exalted is He, far above what they say!”

“Knower of the unseen and the seen; exalted is He above what they associate with Him.”

A fuller discussion of this belongs elsewhere. The point here is that each statement—that He created, and that He is the Most Generous, who taught by the pen—indicates these two ways of affirming the attributes, just as it directed us to the first way: inferring them from His acts.

His words, “the Most Generous,” entail that He surpasses all others in generosity. Generosity is a comprehensive term encompassing every excellent quality. This therefore entails that He has a greater claim to every praiseworthy quality, and praiseworthy qualities are attributes of perfection. Thus, He is more deserving of being described as beneficent towards creation and merciful, and of being attributed with wisdom, power, knowledge, life, and all such perfections.

The same applies to His words, “He created.” The Creator is eternal, without beginning, self-sufficient, necessarily existent in Himself, and the Self-Subsisting Sustainer. It is known that He has a greater claim to the attributes of perfection than a created, originated, contingent being. This is from the standpoint of a fortiori reasoning. As for reasoning from the effect, the Creator of another being