Part One
The creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah in summary
First Issue: The Term and Its Meaning
Ikhtiyārī is from ikhtiyār, choice: a thing done by the one who chooses it, when he wills, and left when he wills. The volitional attributes (al-ṣifāt al-ikhtiyāriyyah) are the attributes that Allah does by His will and His power, such as speaking, being pleased, being angry, loving, rising over the Throne, descending and coming.
The scholars divide the attributes of Allah into two kinds. The attributes of the Essence (ṣifāt dhātiyyah) are those He has never been without and never will be, such as life, knowledge, power, the Face and the Hands. The attributes of action (ṣifāt fiʿliyyah) are those connected to His will: He does them when He wills. Some attributes are of both kinds at once from two sides. Speech is an attribute of the Essence in its kind, because Allah has never ceased to be one who speaks, and an attribute of action in its particular words, because He speaks when He wills with what He wills.
Second Issue: The Three Positions, in the Words of Ibn Taymiyyah
Ibn Taymiyyah opened his chapter on the volitional attributes with a definition and a map of the positions. The Jahmiyyah and the Muʿtazilah deny that any attribute at all subsists in Allah. The Kullābiyyah, and the Ashʿarīs who followed them, affirm some attributes but say that nothing subsists in Him by His will: whatever is by His will is created and separate from Him. The Salaf and the imams of the Sunnah and the ḥadīth affirm all of it as the Book and the Sunnah state.
He then named those who reported this as the creed of the imams: Ibn Mandah, Ibn Ḥāmid, Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, Abū Ismāʿīl al-Anṣārī and Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr; and those whose words establish it: Ibn al-Mubārak, Aḥmad, al-Bukhārī, al-Dārimī, and through Ḥarb al-Kirmānī, Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr and Isḥāq. And he brought the decisive verse: “No reminder comes to them from their Lord, newly sent down”. The reminder came to them at a time; it was new to them when it came down, and it is not created.
Ibn Taymiyyah said in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā:
وَهِيَ الْأُمُورُ الَّتِي يَتَّصِفُ بِهَا الرَّبُّ ﷿ فَتَقُومُ بِذَاتِهِ بِمَشِيئَتِهِ وَقُدْرَتِهِ؛ مِثْلُ كَلَامِهِ وَسَمْعِهِ وَبَصَرِهِ وَإِرَادَتِهِ وَمَحَبَّتِهِ وَرِضَاهُ وَرَحْمَتِهِ وَغَضَبِهِ وَسَخَطِهِ؛ وَمِثْلُ خَلْقِهِ وَإِحْسَانِهِ وَعَدْلِهِ؛ وَمِثْلُ اسْتِوَائِهِ وَمَجِيئِهِ وَإِتْيَانِهِ وَنُزُولِهِ وَنَحْوُ ذَلِكَ مِنْ الصِّفَاتِ الَّتِي نَطَقَ بِهَا الْكِتَابُ الْعَزِيزُ وَالسُّنَّةُ. " فالْجَهْمِيَّة " وَمَنْ وَافَقَهُمْ مِنْ " الْمُعْتَزِلَةِ " وَغَيْرِهِمْ يَقُولُونَ: لَا يَقُومُ بِذَاتِهِ شَيْءٌ مِنْ هَذِهِ الصِّفَاتِ وَلَا غَيْرِهَا. وَ " الْكُلَّابِيَة " وَمَنْ وَافَقَهُمْ مِنْ " السالمية " وَغَيْرِهِمْ يَقُولُونَ: " تَقُومُ صِفَاتٌ بِغَيْرِ مَشِيئَتِهِ وَقُدْرَتِهِ؛ فَأَمَّا مَا يَكُونُ بِمَشِيئَتِهِ وَقُدْرَتِهِ: فَلَا يَكُونُ إلَّا مَخْلُوقًا مُنْفَصِلًا عَنْهُ ".
وَأَمَّا " السَّلَفُ وَأَئِمَّةُ السُّنَّةِ وَالْحَدِيثِ " فَيَقُولُونَ: إنَّهُ مُتَّصِفٌ بِذَلِكَ؛ كَمَا نَطَقَ بِهِ الْكِتَابُ وَالسُّنَّةُ؛ وَهُوَ قَوْلُ كَثِيرٍ مِنْ " أَهْلِ الْكَلَامِ وَالْفَلْسَفَةِ " أَوْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ كَمَا ذَكَرْنَا أَقْوَالَهُمْ بِأَلْفَاظِهَا فِي غَيْرِ هَذَا الْمَوْضِعِ. وَمِثْلُ هَذَا: " الْكَلَامِ ". فَإِنَّ السَّلَفَ وَأَئِمَّةَ السُّنَّةِ وَالْحَدِيثِ يَقُولُونَ: يَتَكَلَّمُ بِمَشِيئَتِهِ وَقُدْرَتِهِ؛ وَكَلَامُهُ لَيْسَ بِمَخْلُوقِ؛ بَلْ كَلَامُهُ صِفَةٌ لَهُ قَائِمَةٌ بِذَاتِهِ. وَمِمَّنْ ذَكَرَ أَنَّ ذَلِكَ قَوْلُ أَئِمَّةِ السُّنَّةِ: أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ابْنُ منده وَأَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ابْنُ حَامِدٍ وَأَبُو بَكْرٍ عَبْدُ الْعَزِيزِ وَأَبُو إسْمَاعِيلَ الْأَنْصَارِيُّ وَغَيْرُهُمْ؛ وَكَذَلِكَ ذَكَرَ أَبُو عُمَرَ بْنُ عَبْدِ الْبَرِّ نَظِيرَ هَذَا فِي " الِاسْتِوَاءِ " وَأَئِمَّةُ السُّنَّةِ - كَعَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ الْمُبَارَكِ وَأَحْمَدَ بْنُ حَنْبَلٍ وَالْبُخَارِيِّ وَعُثْمَانَ بْنِ سَعِيدٍ الدارمي وَمَنْ لَا يُحْصَى مِنْ الْأَئِمَّةِ وَذَكَرَهُ حَرْبُ بْنُ إسْمَاعِيلَ الكرماني عَنْ سَعِيدِ بْنِ مَنْصُورٍ وَأَحْمَدَ بْنِ حَنْبَلٍ وَإِسْحَاقَ بْنِ إبْرَاهِيمَ وَسَائِرُ أَهْلِ السُّنَّةِ وَالْحَدِيثِ - مُتَّفِقُونَ عَلَى أَنَّهُ مُتَكَلِّمٌ بِمَشِيئَتِهِ وَأَنَّهُ لَمْ يَزَلْ مُتَكَلِّمًا إذَا شَاءَ وَكَيْفَ شَاءَ. وَقَدْ سَمَّى اللَّهُ الْقُرْآنَ الْعَزِيزَ حَدِيثًا فَقَالَ: ﴿اللَّهُ نَزَّلَ أَحْسَنَ الْحَدِيثِ﴾ وَقَالَ: ﴿وَمَنْ أَصْدَقُ مِنَ اللَّهِ حَدِيثًا﴾ . وَقَالَ ﴿مَا يَأْتِيهِمْ مِنْ ذِكْرٍ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ مُحْدَثٍ﴾ . وَقَالَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ " ﴿إنَّ اللَّهَ يُحْدِثُ مِنْ أَمْرِهِ مَا يَشَاءُ﴾ " وَهَذَا مِمَّا احْتَجَّ بِهِ الْبُخَارِيُّ فِي صَحِيحِهِ وَفِي غَيْرِ صَحِيحِهِ؛ وَاحْتَجَّ بِهِ غَيْرُ الْبُخَارِيِّ كَنَعِيمِ بْنِ حَمَّادٍ وَحَمَّادِ بْنِ زَيْدٍ.
Chapter on the volitional attributes. They are the matters with which the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, is described, which subsist in His Essence by His will and His power: such as His speech, His hearing, His sight, His willing, His love, His pleasure, His mercy, His anger and His displeasure; and such as His creating, His beneficence and His justice; and such as His rising over the Throne, His coming, His arriving and His descending, and the like of the attributes that the Mighty Book and the Sunnah have spoken of. The Jahmiyyah, and those of the Muʿtazilah and others who agreed with them, say: nothing of these attributes, nor of any others, subsists in His Essence. The Kullābiyyah, and those of the Sālimiyyah and others who agreed with them, say: attributes subsist in Him without His will and His power; as for what is by His will and power, it can only be created and separate from Him. As for the Salaf and the imams of the Sunnah and the ḥadīth, they say that He is described with that, as the Book and the Sunnah have spoken; and it is the saying of many of the people of kalām and philosophy, or most of them, as we have mentioned their sayings in their own words elsewhere. And like this is speech: the Salaf and the imams of the Sunnah and the ḥadīth say that He speaks by His will and His power, and His speech is not created; rather His speech is an attribute of His, subsisting in His Essence. Among those who mentioned that this is the saying of the imams of the Sunnah are Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mandah, Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥāmid, Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, Abū Ismāʿīl al-Anṣārī and others; and Abū ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr mentioned the like of this concerning the istiwāʾ. And the imams of the Sunnah — such as ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, al-Bukhārī, ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, and imams beyond counting; and Ḥarb ibn Ismāʿīl al-Kirmānī reported it from Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm and the rest of the people of the Sunnah and the ḥadīth — are agreed that He speaks by His will, and that He has never ceased to speak when He wills and as He wills. And Allah named the Mighty Qurʾān a ḥadīth, saying: {Allah has sent down the best ḥadīth}, and He said: {And who is more truthful than Allah in ḥadīth?}, and He said: {No reminder comes to them from their Lord, newly sent down (muḥdath)}. And the Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah brings about of His command whatever He wills.” This is among what al-Bukhārī argued from in his Ṣaḥīḥ and elsewhere, and others besides al-Bukhārī argued from it, such as Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād and Ḥammād ibn Zayd.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā 6/217–218
Source, chain and authenticity
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The whole page in Arabic
فَصْلٌ: فِي الصِّفَاتِ الِاخْتِيَارِيَّةِ
وَهِيَ الْأُمُورُ الَّتِي يَتَّصِفُ بِهَا الرَّبُّ ﷿ فَتَقُومُ بِذَاتِهِ بِمَشِيئَتِهِ وَقُدْرَتِهِ؛ مِثْلُ كَلَامِهِ وَسَمْعِهِ وَبَصَرِهِ وَإِرَادَتِهِ وَمَحَبَّتِهِ وَرِضَاهُ وَرَحْمَتِهِ وَغَضَبِهِ وَسَخَطِهِ؛ وَمِثْلُ خَلْقِهِ وَإِحْسَانِهِ وَعَدْلِهِ؛ وَمِثْلُ اسْتِوَائِهِ وَمَجِيئِهِ وَإِتْيَانِهِ وَنُزُولِهِ وَنَحْوُ ذَلِكَ مِنْ الصِّفَاتِ الَّتِي نَطَقَ بِهَا الْكِتَابُ الْعَزِيزُ وَالسُّنَّةُ. " فالْجَهْمِيَّة " وَمَنْ وَافَقَهُمْ مِنْ " الْمُعْتَزِلَةِ " وَغَيْرِهِمْ يَقُولُونَ: لَا يَقُومُ بِذَاتِهِ شَيْءٌ مِنْ هَذِهِ الصِّفَاتِ وَلَا غَيْرِهَا. وَ " الْكُلَّابِيَة " وَمَنْ وَافَقَهُمْ مِنْ " السالمية " وَغَيْرِهِمْ يَقُولُونَ: " تَقُومُ صِفَاتٌ بِغَيْرِ مَشِيئَتِهِ وَقُدْرَتِهِ؛ فَأَمَّا مَا يَكُونُ بِمَشِيئَتِهِ وَقُدْرَتِهِ: فَلَا يَكُونُ إلَّا مَخْلُوقًا مُنْفَصِلًا عَنْهُ ".
وَأَمَّا " السَّلَفُ وَأَئِمَّةُ السُّنَّةِ وَالْحَدِيثِ " فَيَقُولُونَ: إنَّهُ مُتَّصِفٌ بِذَلِكَ؛ كَمَا نَطَقَ بِهِ الْكِتَابُ وَالسُّنَّةُ؛ وَهُوَ قَوْلُ كَثِيرٍ مِنْ " أَهْلِ الْكَلَامِ وَالْفَلْسَفَةِ " أَوْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ كَمَا ذَكَرْنَا أَقْوَالَهُمْ بِأَلْفَاظِهَا فِي غَيْرِ هَذَا الْمَوْضِعِ. وَمِثْلُ هَذَا: " الْكَلَامِ ". فَإِنَّ السَّلَفَ وَأَئِمَّةَ السُّنَّةِ وَالْحَدِيثِ يَقُولُونَ: يَتَكَلَّمُ بِمَشِيئَتِهِ وَقُدْرَتِهِ؛ وَكَلَامُهُ لَيْسَ بِمَخْلُوقِ؛ بَلْ كَلَامُهُ صِفَةٌ لَهُ قَائِمَةٌ بِذَاتِهِ. وَمِمَّنْ ذَكَرَ أَنَّ ذَلِكَ قَوْلُ أَئِمَّةِ السُّنَّةِ: أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ابْنُ منده وَأَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ابْنُ حَامِدٍ وَأَبُو بَكْرٍ عَبْدُ الْعَزِيزِ وَأَبُو إسْمَاعِيلَ الْأَنْصَارِيُّ وَغَيْرُهُمْ؛ وَكَذَلِكَ ذَكَرَ أَبُو عُمَرَ بْنُ عَبْدِ الْبَرِّ نَظِيرَ هَذَا فِي " الِاسْتِوَاءِ " وَأَئِمَّةُ السُّنَّةِ - كَعَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ الْمُبَارَكِ وَأَحْمَدَ بْنُ حَنْبَلٍ وَالْبُخَارِيِّ وَعُثْمَانَ بْنِ سَعِيدٍ الدارمي وَمَنْ لَا يُحْصَى مِنْ الْأَئِمَّةِ وَذَكَرَهُ حَرْبُ بْنُ إسْمَاعِيلَ الكرماني عَنْ سَعِيدِ بْنِ مَنْصُورٍ وَأَحْمَدَ بْنِ حَنْبَلٍ وَإِسْحَاقَ بْنِ إبْرَاهِيمَ وَسَائِرُ أَهْلِ السُّنَّةِ وَالْحَدِيثِ - مُتَّفِقُونَ عَلَى أَنَّهُ مُتَكَلِّمٌ بِمَشِيئَتِهِ وَأَنَّهُ لَمْ يَزَلْ مُتَكَلِّمًا إذَا شَاءَ وَكَيْفَ شَاءَ. وَقَدْ سَمَّى اللَّهُ الْقُرْآنَ الْعَزِيزَ حَدِيثًا فَقَالَ: ﴿اللَّهُ نَزَّلَ أَحْسَنَ الْحَدِيثِ﴾ وَقَالَ: ﴿وَمَنْ أَصْدَقُ مِنَ اللَّهِ حَدِيثًا﴾ . وَقَالَ ﴿مَا يَأْتِيهِمْ مِنْ ذِكْرٍ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ مُحْدَثٍ﴾ . وَقَالَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ " ﴿إنَّ اللَّهَ يُحْدِثُ مِنْ أَمْرِهِ مَا يَشَاءُ﴾ " وَهَذَا مِمَّا احْتَجَّ بِهِ الْبُخَارِيُّ فِي صَحِيحِهِ وَفِي غَيْرِ صَحِيحِهِ؛ وَاحْتَجَّ بِهِ غَيْرُ الْبُخَارِيِّ كَنَعِيمِ بْنِ حَمَّادٍ وَحَمَّادِ بْنِ زَيْدٍ.
Part Two
The texts of the Qurʾān and the Sunnah
Third Issue: The Qurʾān Ties These Attributes to Their Times
Allah said that He was pleased with the believers “when (idh) they pledged allegiance to you under the tree”. The pleasure is tied to the time of the pledge. Before the pledge there was no pledge to be pleased with, and after it Allah was pleased with them for it.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Allah was certainly pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you under the tree. He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down tranquillity upon them and rewarded them with a near victory.
Qurʾān 48:18 (al-Fatḥ) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
He said: “So when they angered Us, We took retribution from them.” The anger came after their deeds, and the retribution after the anger. He said: “Allah has indeed heard the speech of the one who disputes with you concerning her husband.” The hearing is of a speech that was spoken at a particular time in Madīnah, and Allah heard it as it was spoken. He said: “Work, for Allah will see your deeds”, in the future tense, because the deeds had not yet been done.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
So when they angered Us, We took retribution from them and drowned them all.
Qurʾān 43:55 (al-Zukhruf) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Allah has indeed heard the speech of the one who disputes with you concerning her husband and complains to Allah; and Allah hears your exchange. Indeed Allah is Hearing, Seeing.
Qurʾān 58:1 (al-Mujādilah) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
The Ashʿarīs interpret all of these as eternal attributes whose objects change, while the attribute itself does not. But the texts do not say that the objects of an eternal pleasure changed. They say that Allah was pleased when they pledged, became angry when they provoked Him, and heard when she spoke. Whoever turns these into eternal attributes with changing objects has replaced the wording of the Qurʾān with the wording of kalām.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
No reminder comes to them from their Lord, newly sent down, except that they listen to it while they play.
Qurʾān 21:2 (al-Anbiyāʾ) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
And say: Work, for Allah will see your deeds, and His Messenger and the believers; and you will be returned to the Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, and He will inform you of what you used to do.
Qurʾān 9:105 (al-Tawbah) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Fourth Issue: The Coming and the Descent
Allah said: “Do they wait for anything except that Allah comes to them in shadows of the clouds, and the angels?” And He said: “And your Lord comes, and the angels, rank upon rank.” The Coming is on the Day of Resurrection, a time that has not yet arrived, for the judgement between His servants.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Do they wait for anything except that Allah comes to them in shadows of the clouds, and the angels, and the matter is decided? And to Allah all matters are returned.
Qurʾān 2:210 (al-Baqarah) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
And your Lord comes, and the angels, rank upon rank.
Qurʾān 89:22 (al-Fajr) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Al-Marrūdhī reported that Imām Aḥmad, when he heard the saying of Ibn al-Mubārak that Allah is upon the Throne with a ḥadd, was pleased with it, and then recited these two verses of the Coming. He placed the Coming beside the Highness as part of one creed, without interpreting either.
Al-Jāmiʿ li-ʿUlūm al-Imām Aḥmad said in al-ʿAqīdah:
And Abū Bakr al-Marrūdhī said: I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh, when it was said to him that ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shaqīq reported from Ibn al-Mubārak that it was said to him: How do we know Allah? He said: Upon the Throne, with a ḥadd. He said: That reached me from him; and it pleased him. Then Abū ʿAbd Allāh recited: {Do they wait for anything except that Allah comes to them in shadows of the clouds, and the angels} [al-Baqarah 210]; then he recited: {And your Lord comes, and the angels, rank upon rank} [al-Fajr 22].
al-Jāmiʿ li-ʿUlūm al-Imām Aḥmad, al-ʿAqīdah 3/310, from Ibn Baṭṭah, al-Ibānah 3/158–159
Source, chain and authenticity
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The whole page in Arabic
قال الإمام أحمد: هكذا هو عندنا (١).
وقال أبو بكر المروذي، سمعت أبا عبد اللَّه وقيل له: روى علي ابن الحسن بن شقيق عن ابن المبارك؛ أنه قيل له: كيف نعرف اللَّه قال: على العرلش بحد، فقال بلغني ذلك عنه وأعجبه، ثم قال أبو عبد اللَّه: ﴿هَلْ يَنْظُرُونَ إِلَّا أَنْ يَأْتِيَهُمُ اللَّهُ فِي ظُلَلٍ مِنَ الْغَمَامِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ﴾ [البقرة: ٢١٠] ثم قال ﴿وَجَاءَ رَبُّكَ وَالْمَلَكُ صَفًّا صَفًّا﴾ (٢) [الفجر: ٢٢].
وقال يوسف بن موسى القطان: قيل لأبي عبد اللَّه: واللَّه تعالى فوق السماء السابعة على عرشه بائن من خلقه، وقدرته وعلمه بكل مكان، قال: نعم، على عرشه، لا يخلو شيء من علمه (٣).
"الإبانة" كتاب الرد على الجهمية ٣/ ١٥٦ - ١٥٩ (١١٣ - ١١٥)
Part Three
The statements of the Salaf
Fifth Issue: Al-Dārimī on Movement (Ḥarakah)
Bishr al-Marīsī explained al-Qayyūm as the One who does not move from His place and does not move. Al-Dārimī answered him: this explanation is not accepted except with a report from the Prophet ﷺ, the Companions or the Followers, and there is none. Then he gave the reason: the Living, the Sustaining does what He wills, and the difference between the living and the dead is that the living acts.
ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī said in Naqḍ al-Imām Abī Saʿīd ʿalā al-Marīsī al-Jahmī:
كُلُّ حَيٍّ مُتَحَرِّكٌ لَا مَحَالَةَ، وَكُلُّ مَيِّتٍ غَيْرُ مُتَحَرِّكٍ لَا مَحَالَةَ
As for your claim that the explanation of al-Qayyūm is the one who does not move from His place and does not move, this explanation is not accepted from you except with an authentic report transmitted from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, or from some of his Companions, or from the Followers. For the Living, the Sustaining does what He wills, and moves when He wills, and descends and rises when He wills, and grasps and extends, and stands and sits when He wills; because the sign that separates the living from the dead is movement. Every living thing moves, without doubt, and every dead thing does not move, without doubt.
ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, Naqḍ al-Imām Abī Saʿīd ʿalā al-Marīsī al-Jahmī, p. 71
Source, chain and authenticity
The word ḥarakah is not in the texts. Some of the imams of the Sunnah used it, as al-Dārimī did here, to answer the Jahmiyyah with their own term; others held back from the word because the texts did not use it. Both agree on affirming everything the texts state of the Coming, the Descent, the Istiwāʾ and the rest. The dispute over the word does not touch the meaning that the texts affirm, and the Jahmī who rejects the Coming because it is “movement” has rejected the Qurʾān, not a word.
Part Four
Principles drawn from the evidence
Sixth Issue: The Rules of the Volitional Attributes
The first rule: every attribute that the Qurʾān ties to a time, a cause or a condition is a volitional attribute, done by Allah when He wills. Allah's pleasure with those who pledged, His anger at those who provoked Him, His love for those who follow His Messenger, His coming on the Day of Resurrection: all of these are real, and all are by His will.
The second rule: the kind of these actions is eternal, and the particulars come about when He wills. Allah has never been without the ability to speak and to act; He did not become able to speak after being unable. What happens in time is the particular word and the particular act, not the attribute itself.
The third rule: these attributes are perfection. One who can act when he wills is more perfect than one who cannot act at all. The Jahmiyyah fled from describing Allah with action, and ended by describing Him as unable to do anything in Himself.
Part Five
The claims of the opponents and their refutation
“Whatever events subsist in is itself originated”
The claim
If new things (ḥawādith) subsisted in Allah, He would be originated, because whatever is not free of originated things is itself originated. This is ḥulūl al-ḥawādith, and it is impossible for Allah.
The response
The premise of this argument is not from the Qurʾān, the Sunnah, or the Companions. It was built by the people of kalām to prove that the world is originated, and they then used it against the attributes of Allah. Their proof ran: bodies are not free of motions, motions are originated, so bodies are originated. When they found that the texts describe Allah with coming, descending, speaking and pleasure, they denied these to keep their proof.
The answer is that the premise is false. That a thing has acts that come about by its will does not make the thing itself come into being. Allah speaks when He wills, and He is eternal; His speaking at a time is an act of His, not a beginning of His existence. The Qurʾān describes Him with these actions, and an argument that ends by rejecting the Qurʾān is refuted by its conclusion.
The phrase ḥulūl al-ḥawādith is a phrase of the people of kalām. If by it is meant that created things enter into Allah, He is free of that. If by it is meant that Allah does what He wills when He wills, speaks when He wills, and is pleased after the deed that pleases Him, then this is what the Qurʾān states, and renaming it does not change it.
“Imām Aḥmad interpreted the Coming as the coming of His power”
The claim
Ḥanbal reported that Aḥmad said of “and your Lord comes”: His power comes. So Aḥmad himself interpreted the Coming, and taʾwīl is the way of the Salaf.
The response
This saying was made in the debates of the trial over the Qurʾān. The Jahmiyyah argued that the Qurʾān is created because the ḥadīth says that al-Baqarah and Āl ʿImrān will come on the Day of Resurrection, and only a created thing comes. Aḥmad answered them from their own principle: you say that when Allah said “your Lord comes” His power or command comes; then say the same of the Qurʾān, that its reward comes. It was an argument that bound the opponent by what he himself holds, not a statement of Aḥmad's own creed.
Aḥmad's own creed in the Coming is known from his students. Al-Marrūdhī reported that when the saying of Ibn al-Mubārak was mentioned to him, he was pleased with it and recited the verses of the Coming as they are. Whoever takes a single phrase said in debate and sets it against the transmitted creed of an imam has not understood the imam, and has not understood the debate.
“Until Allah knows” means He did not know before
The claim
Verses such as “while Allah has not yet known those of you who strove” show, on the reading of Ahl al-Sunnah, that Allah's knowledge increases, so they must be interpreted.
The response
Allah knew everything before it existed, and He wrote it fifty thousand years before creating the heavens and the earth. The knowledge in these verses is His knowledge of the thing as it exists and occurs, after He knew it as something that would occur. The two are not the same object: the knowledge that Zayd will strive is not the knowledge that Zayd is striving now.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Or did you think that you would enter Paradise while Allah has not yet known those of you who strove, and known the patient?
Qurʾān 3:142 (Āl ʿImrān) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
This knowledge of what is occurring is the knowledge on which the reward and punishment depend. Allah does not reward His servants for what He knew they would do, but for what they did. So the verses state a knowledge that is tied to the deed when it happens, and nothing in them requires that anything was hidden from Allah before.
Sources
- Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā
- Qurʾān
- al-Jāmiʿ li-ʿUlūm al-Imām Aḥmad, al-ʿAqīdah
- ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, Naqḍ al-Imām Abī Saʿīd ʿalā al-Marīsī al-Jahmī