Attributes of Allah in the Holy Quran

 بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

الصلاة والسلام عليك يا سيدي يا رسول الله

Salutations and peace upon you, my master, Apostle of Allah

One of the key differences between us orthodox Sunni Muslims and the heresy known as Mutazilism is concerning the divine attributes. We believe Allah is a single person with multiple attributes such as life, power, knowledge, speech, hearing, sighting, creativity and will. Allah's attributes are eternal and subsist within Him. They are neither Him nor other than Him, but rather inseparable from Him. Allah is alive by the attribute of life, powerful by power, knowledgable by knowledge, speaking by speech, hearing by the faculty of hearing, seeing by sight, creating by creativity and willing by will. The Mutazilites have deviated from this in the name of Tawhid; putting forth a radical interpretation of the doctrine of the oneness of God in which even multiplicity of divine attributes is polytheistic in their reckoning! This kind of radical "monotheism" is certainly not the monotheism brought by the Prophets of God. It is rooted in mental wrangling and an antiquated framework of ancient Greek metaphysics. According to the Mu'tazilah, Allah has no attributes whatsoever! He is powerful by His essence and not by an attribute of power and He is knowledgable by His essence and not by an attribute of knowledge. Mutazilites claim there is no proof that God has attributes since the word for attribute, siffah in Arabic, does not actually appear in the Quran in relation to Allah. Rather, He says:

سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ

Sanctified is He and exalted from that which they attribute to Him

(Surah 6, Ayah 100)

In a recent debate with a Zaydi Shi'ite who subscribes to Mutazilite theology, I presented an Ayah from the Quran that substantiates our Sunni doctrine that Allah has attributes, such as the attribute of knowledge which cannot be said to be synonymous with His self or essence:

وَلَقَدِ اخْتَرْنَاهُمْ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ

Indeed, We chose them upon knowledge above the worlds

(Surah 44, Ayah 32)

According to this Ayah, Allah chose the Israelites over and above all other nations of the time on the basis of His divine knowledge. The Mutazilites affirm Allah is knowledgable or knowing [alim] as an adjective to describe His essence, but deny that He has an attribute called knowledge [ilm]. Yet in this Ayah, knowledge [ilm] is affirmed for Allah, and definitionally is therefore an attribute of His. From the Sunnah too we come to know that Allah has divine attributes, and that, for instance, the Prophet, sall Allahu alayhi wasallam, would seek refuge in His attribute of glory and taught us to swear by His attribute of glory:

أَعُوذُ بِعِزَّتِكَ

I seek refuge in Your glory (Sahih al-Bukhari)

وَعِزَّتِكَ

(I swear) by Your glory (ibid)

The Holy Prophet Muhammad, sall Allahu alaihi wasallam, used to seek refuge for his grandsons al-Hasan and al-Husain, radi Allahu anhuma, as Abraham sought refuge for his sons Ishmael and Isaac, peace be upon them, by saying:

أَعُوذُ بِكَلِمَاتِ اللَّهِ التَّامَّةِ

I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah (ibid)

Since it is impermissible to seek refuge in a creation of God, this Prophetic prayer is a proof that the words of Allah are not created but divine, and therefore the Quran is divine speech and not a creation, in contrast to the heresy of the Mutazilites.