For this reason, one should not state without qualification that Allah’s speech, Allah’s knowledge, and the like are He Himself, for this is false. Nor should one state without qualification that they are other than Him, lest this be understood to mean that they are separate and detached from Him. This position, explained by Imam Ahmad, is upheld by the most discerning imams of the Sunnah. They neither state without qualification that an attribute is He Himself, nor that it is other than Him. Nor do they say, “It is neither He Himself nor other than Him,” for this too establishes a third category, which is mistaken. There is a difference between refraining from using either expression without qualification because of their ambiguity, and categorically denying what both expressions signify while affirming a third meaning outside the scope of either.

After them came Abū al-Hasan, who was more discerning than those who followed him. He said: “We negate each separately, not both together. We say separately, ‘The attribute is not the one who possesses it,’ and separately, ‘It is not other than Him.’ The two should not be combined by saying, ‘It is neither He Himself nor other than Him,’ because combining the two negations creates a misleading impression that does not arise when they are stated separately.”

Others came after him and said: “Rather, we negate both together, saying, ‘It is neither He Himself nor other than Him.’” Yet many of these, when examining the matter, say that this meaning is other than Him, thereby contradicting themselves. The reason is that the term “other” is ambiguous: it may mean something separate and detached, or it may mean something that is not the very thing itself. The first sense is sometimes expressed by saying that two things are “other” when one of them may exist or not exist, or when one may be separate from the other in time, place, or existence. The second is expressed by saying that one of the two may be known while