among the leading scholars of hadith and the Sunnah—then His speaking or acting would be inseparable from His life, and His life is inseparable from Him. Thus He has always spoken and acted.

This is understood alongside the recognition that a living being speaks and acts by its will and power, and that this entails one utterance after another and one act after another. The agent precedes each of its acts, which entails that everything other than Him is originated and created. We do not say that there was a time when He had no power until power was created for Him—for one who has no power is powerless. Rather, we say: Allah has always been All-Knowing, All-Powerful, and Sovereign, without likeness or specification of how. None of the things He has made is eternal alongside Him. No indeed: He is the Creator of everything, and everything other than Him is His creation. Every created thing originated, coming into existence after not existing, even if it is supposed that He has always been creating and acting.

If it is said that creating is an attribute of perfection, because of His words, Most High:

“Is He who creates like one who does not create?”

is it possible for His being the Creator to be everlasting, while everything He creates is originated and preceded by nonexistence, with nothing eternal alongside Allah? This expresses perfection more fully than His being inactive and unable to act, then becoming able to act, with action becoming possible for Him without any cause.

As for holding that a particular thing He has made coexists with Him from eternity and forever, this in reality negates His creating and acting. For an agent’s coexisting with its effect from eternity and forever contradicts clear reason.