those among the Jahmiyyah and Muʿtazilah who deny the attributes, they deny all the more that any act subsists in Him. Some of them, however, distinguish creation from the created thing, holding creation to be either a quality subsisting in the created thing or an infinite succession of qualities, as maintained by Maʿmar ibn ʿAbbād. Others hold that creation subsists without a locus, as in the view of some that it is the utterance “Be!” without a locus, or the Basrans’ view that it is a volition without a locus. They adopt these positions to avoid admitting that temporally originated events subsist in Him, although some of them accept this consequence, as did Abū al-Husayn and others.

The majority, who affirm the attributes, hold two views concerning acts. Some say that no act subsists in Him; rather, the act is identical with what is done. This is the position of a group that includes al-Ashʿarī and those who agree with him, both among his followers and outside their ranks, such as Ibn ʿAqīl and others. It was also the earlier of al-Qādī Abū Yaʿlā’s two positions. They divide the attributes into attributes of essence, of meaning, and of action. Yet this classification has no basis in reality, for according to them, acts do not subsist in Him, so He is not characterized by them; rather, statements are made about Him in terms of them.

This classification accords with the position of those who say: Attributes are the statements that