A distinction may also be drawn between the terms “likening” and “asserting equivalence.” The Muʿtazilah and others who deny the divine attributes say:

“Anyone who affirms a beginningless attribute for Allah likens Him to another and asserts equivalence between them.”

Thus, anyone who says that Allah has beginningless knowledge or beginningless power is, in their view, guilty of such likening and equivalence. This is because most of them regard beginninglessness as the most distinctive characteristic of God. Whoever affirms a beginningless attribute for Him has therefore, in their view, affirmed a beginningless counterpart to Allah, and on this basis they describe him as someone who asserts equivalence.

Those who affirm the divine attributes do not agree with them. Rather, they say: “His most distinctive characteristics are those that belong to no one else, such as His being the Lord of all worlds, His knowing all things, His having power over all things, His being the One God, and the like.” An attribute cannot itself be described by any of these characteristics.

Among those who affirm the attributes, some do not say that the attributes are beginningless. Instead, they say: “The Lord, with His attributes, is beginningless.” Others say: “He is beginningless, and His attribute is beginningless,” but do not say: “He and His attributes are both beginningless.”

Still others say: “He and His attributes are both beginningless.” However, they say: “This does not entail that an attribute shares any of His distinctive characteristics. Beginninglessness is not a distinctive characteristic of the essence stripped of attributes, but of the essence possessing attributes. Indeed, in their view, an essence stripped of attributes does not exist at all, let alone possess beginninglessness as its distinctive characteristic.”

They may also say: “The essence is characterized by beginninglessness, and the attributes are characterized by beginninglessness; yet the attributes are neither a god nor a lord, just as the Prophet came into existence and his attributes came into existence, yet his attributes are not a prophet.”