and other such attributes, both in wording and in meaning. When the discerning scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah say, “The attributes are additional to the essence,” they mean only that they are additional to what those who deny the attributes have affirmed concerning the essence. For the latter affirm a bare essence devoid of attributes, whereas Ahl al-Sunnah affirm attributes beyond what those people have affirmed. This is an addition in knowledge, belief, and description—not an addition to Allah Himself, exalted be His majesty and holy be His names. Rather, His holy Self possesses these attributes inseparably: the attributes cannot exist without the essence, nor the essence without the attributes. These matters are discussed at length elsewhere.

The point is that if al-Ashʿarī or any other affirmer of the attributes who followed the approach of Ibn Kullāb says that the attributes are equivalent to one another, this is something no rational person would say. Two things are equivalent when either can fulfil the function of the other and take its place. Knowledge is not equivalent to power, nor is power equivalent to will. Speech, however, is in his view one single thing, and a single thing cannot admit of degrees of excellence or equivalence.

In sum, those who deny that some of Allah’s speech is better than other parts base their position on two grounds:

The first is that none of the Lord’s attributes is better than another. They sometimes express this by saying that what is eternal admits no degrees of excellence.