the question of utterance. But those who incline towards either extreme denounce the other side. Allah—glorified be He—knows best.

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As for intransitive acts, such as rising over the Throne and coming, people disagree over whether to affirm them at all. These acts involve no existing object known to them from whose existence as a created thing they could infer the act of creation. Rather, these acts are known only through revelation. Their basis, therefore, is revelation, not reason. Thus, those who deny the attributes known through revelation also deny these acts, whether they say, “The act of creation is distinct from the created thing,” or, “The act of creation is the created thing.” Those in either group who affirm the attributes known through revelation also affirm these acts.

Those who affirm the attributes known through revelation hold two views concerning these acts:

Some classify them as transitive acts by regarding them as events that arise in something else. This is the view of al-Ash‘arī, the leading scholars among his followers, and those who agreed with them, such as al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā, Ibn al-Zāghūnī, and Ibn Aqīl in many of his statements.

Al-Ash‘arī says: “Rising over the Throne is an act He performed upon the Throne, through which He became