Applying the term “creation” to the attributes is a matter of necessity, since creation belongs to the domain of the Most Beautiful Names. We may regard the attributes as prior to the names, because the names are markers and signs of those very attributes. In any case, the attributes are among the originated things that are not creations. Perhaps “bringing into being” is a better term for the attributes than “creation,” since each originated thing has its place in its own particular order.
By God’s permission, it is permissible to describe the Exalted Lord by His Most High and Sublime Attributes, for this closes off the path of denying His attributes. Human understanding cannot reach beyond them: people praise their Object of worship with the fullest capacity of their being and through the loftiest attributes they can conceive. In doing so, they also acknowledge that their Object of worship surpasses the description they have given Him. Thus, they move from describing the Object of worship to declaring His transcendence.
Declaring the Divine Essence above the attributes does not diminish the servant’s trust in the Object of worship; it strengthens it and even raises it beyond the level of trust. For the servant regards the attributes, in all their grandeur, as originated things belonging to the Divine Essence: the attributes are counted among God’s possessions, while His peerless Essence is held to be above them.
The attributes are, in truth, like a flavour that turns our attention beyond itself: a pleasure that leads to peace, and a peace that directs us toward a reality without kind or likeness, counterpart or equal. When a person realises that beyond beauty, pleasure, wisdom, knowledge and justice lies a peerless Reality, their longing and ardour for the Divine Essence grow all the greater.
When we describe God as just, we are in truth acknowledging that the Creator places everything in this universe in its proper and exalted place; that no injustice can ever issue from His sacred presence; and that He redresses the wrongs inflicted by oppressors upon the oppressed. All of these are His acts. He is not confined to this particular aspect of justice: He also possesses grace and boundless mercy. All these are His acts and originated things. Even the description “there is no just one like Him” falls within the bounds of “not denying the attributes in our relation to Him and in describing Him.” He is too exalted to be described by justice, for description is bound up with declaring His transcendence. Observing both these principles in describing the Lord frees God’s servant from every abyss of associating partners with Him.
We must not fall into the error of taking the denial of attributes to mean their absence. God’s justice is His possession; it truly exists, and everything is held within the embrace of His justice. Yet He is above that justice, its sweetness and its effects. The attributes, then, do exist, and existence is among the things He has brought into being. He is the Bestower of existence.
Calling God “there is no wise one like Him” is acceptable under the principle of “not denying the attributes”; but calling Him “there is no goal like Him” is not correct. A “goal” can be defined in relation to wisdom. God has determined the beginning and end of His creatures for His own sake. He knows the past and the future, time and space in their entirety, and everything within them. His knowledge is not within time and space but beyond them; His encompassing knowledge transcends every boundary of time and space, extending even beyond what lies beyond them. God, the All-Powerful, the All-Knowing and All-Wise, does not set a goal for Himself. Rather, God, Blessed and Exalted, creates goals for His creatures or sets them for them. This strengthens every belief, and especially belief in the Hereafter.
This cannot be reconciled with the promises of God, for no question of any significance arises concerning the possibility of His failing to fulfil a promise. God will certainly fulfil His promise; His will to fulfil it cannot fail. What we must bear in mind is that He is not identical with His will or His promise—not that He has no will or makes no promise.
الإسراء : 43 سُبْحانَهُ وَ تَعالى عَمَّا يَقُولُونَ عُلُوًّا كَبيراً
الأنبياء : 22 لَوْ كانَ فيهِما آلِهَةٌ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ لَفَسَدَتا فَسُبْحانَ اللَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَرْشِ عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ
الصافات : 159 سُبْحانَ اللَّهِ عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ
الصافات : 180 سُبْحانَ رَبِّكَ رَبِّ الْعِزَّةِ عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ
الزخرف : 82 سُبْحانَ رَبِّ السَّماواتِ وَ الْأَرْضِ رَبِّ الْعَرْشِ عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ