that admits neither multiplicity nor division. How, then, can one ask, “Are some parts of it superior to others, or are they equal?” when, according to them, it has no parts?

If they say, “Equality and superiority concern the expressions that signify it,” the reply is: “According to the foundational principle of this doctrine, and according to their leading authorities, those expressions are not Allah’s speech. Rather, they are among His created things, and there is no difficulty in acknowledging differences in excellence among created things.”

Any of their followers who says that these expressions are literally called Allah’s speech, and that the term ‘speech’ applies both to them and to that meaning subsisting within the self by way of homonymy, has not understood the true nature of their doctrine. Indeed, this claim of his undermines their foundational principle.

For their foundational principle is that speech subsists only in the speaker, not in anyone else. If speech could subsist in someone other than the speaker, Allah’s speech could be created and subsist in someone other than Him while still being Allah’s speech.

This is the foundational principle of the outright Jahmiyyah and the Muʿtazilah, on which the Kullābiyyah and all others who affirm the divine attributes opposed them. They said: “A speaker cannot be a speaker unless speech subsists in him.” They said the same concerning the other attributes: “A knower cannot be a knower unless knowledge subsists in him, nor can one who wills be such unless will subsists in him.” Thus, if they allowed Allah to have speech that is His while being created and separate from Him, this foundational principle would be invalidated.

The foundational principle of those among the Jahmiyyah and the Muʿtazilah who negate and deny the divine attributes is that they describe Allah by what does not subsist in Him, but instead subsists in something other than Him, or by what does not exist. They say, “These are relations, not attributes.” Thus they say that He is merciful and shows mercy, yet mercy does not subsist in Him; rather, it is