Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. To proceed:
The statement that Allah’s attributes are identical to His Essence is false, because it leads either to denying the attributes and affirming an essence stripped of them, or to confusing the meaning of the Essence with the meaning of an attribute. The position of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama‘ah is to affirm the attributes of perfection that Allah has affirmed for Himself, while distinguishing conceptually between the Essence and the attributes, without likening Allah to His creation and without denying His attributes.
According to Ahl al-Sunnah, an attribute is that which subsists in the Essence and by which the Essence is characterized, such as knowledge, power, mercy, hearing, and sight.
So when it is said, “Allah is All-Knowing,” the meaning is: an Essence characterized by knowledge. And when it is said, “Allah is All-Hearing,” the meaning is: an Essence characterized by hearing.
Here it should be noted that an essence entirely stripped of all attributes has no existence in external reality. The mind may conceive or suppose an essence abstracted from attributes, but in reality, no essence exists except that it is characterized by attributes.
The Mu‘tazilah denied the attributes on the claim that affirming attributes subsisting in Allah would entail a multiplicity of eternal beings or a multiplicity of gods. This reasoning is false, because a multiplicity of attributes does not entail a multiplicity of essences.
A human being, for example, is one individual, yet he may be described by numerous attributes such as hearing, sight, knowledge, and ability. This does not mean that he is multiple individuals.
For this reason, the Mu‘tazilah said that Allah is knowing by His Essence, powerful by His Essence, and living by His Essence, not by knowledge, power, and life subsisting in Him.
Some of them expressed this in another way, saying: “He is knowing by a knowledge that is His Essence,” thereby making the attribute identical to the Essence. This leads to saying that knowledge itself is the Essence.
Al-Shahrastani explained that the Mu‘tazilah denied eternal attributes because they believed that affirming them would entail that they shared with Allah in eternality. Therefore, they referred knowledge, power, and life back to the Essence itself rather than affirming them as attributes subsisting in Him.
To say that the attribute is identical to the Essence confuses two realities that are conceptually distinct.
Knowledge is different in meaning from power, power is different from mercy, and mercy is different from hearing. All of these are established attributes of Allah, even though the One described by them is a single Essence.
Therefore, saying, “Knowledge is the Essence,” does not truly affirm the meaning of knowledge. Rather, it makes the attribute and the One described by it conceptually the same thing, which is incorrect.
On the other hand, it is also incorrect to say without qualification, “Allah’s attributes are other than Allah,” if by this one means that there are things separate from Allah or independent entities apart from Him. This is also false.
Ahl al-Sunnah affirm the attributes of Allah and do not use such ambiguous expressions without clarification.
Thus, one should not say without qualification, “The attributes are Allah,” nor should one say without qualification, “The attributes are other than Allah,” because these expressions can carry both correct and incorrect meanings.
The proper clarification is as follows:
Ibn Abi al-‘Izz al-Hanafi, may Allah have mercy on him, explained that the use of the term “otherness” in this issue is ambiguous. Therefore, clarification is necessary so that the expression does not lead to a false meaning.
It is important to distinguish between a multiplicity of attributes and a multiplicity of essences.
Allah, Glorified and Exalted, is One and has no partner, yet He is described by knowledge, power, life, hearing, sight, mercy, might, and other attributes of perfection.
These attributes do not make Allah multiple gods, just as the multiplicity of a created being’s attributes does not make that creature multiple persons.
It has therefore been reported from Imam Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, in his response to the Jahmiyyah, that one should not say “Allah and His knowledge” or “Allah and His power” in a way that suggests multiplicity. Rather, it is said: “Allah with His knowledge and His power.” He is one God, characterized by attributes of perfection.
So when a Muslim says, “I seek refuge in Allah,” he seeks refuge in Allah, the Sacred Essence characterized by the attributes of perfection.
And when he says, “I seek refuge in the might of Allah,” he seeks refuge in one of Allah’s attributes. This does not mean that he is seeking refuge in other than Allah, because Allah’s might is an attribute subsisting in Him.
The statement that Allah’s attributes are identical to His Essence is false if what is intended is the denial of the attributes or the claim that the attributes are merely words with no real meanings.
The position of Ahl al-Sunnah is to affirm Allah’s attributes as He has affirmed them for Himself, while affirming that Allah is one Essence characterized by attributes of perfection, and that the attributes are not independent entities apart from Him, nor may they be regarded as something separate from Allah.
The attributes are distinct from the Essence in terms of concept and meaning, but they are not “other than Allah” in the sense of separation or independence.
And Allah knows best.