All Praise be to Allāh, Lord of the worlds. Blessingsand Peace be upon His Manifest Messenger, Muhammad,and upon all his family and companions.

Know that 20 attributes must reside with our ProtectorAllāh, the Exalted. They are Existence (wujūd); pre-eternity withoutbeginning (qadm);post-eternity without end (baqā); His absolute distinction tocreation (mukhālafatulḥawādith); His Self-Subsistence whichcannot be restricted in any way and who does notexist in a particular locality (Qiyāmuhu bi nafsihī); and Uniqueness(Waḥdānīyyah), thatis, He is single in his Essence, in His attributesand in His actions. The first of these is termed thepersonal attribute, which is Existence (wujūd), and the next fiveare termed negative attributes. As for the personalattribute, it is possible to call this attribute HisEssence (dhāt) becauseessence cannot be visualised without this existence.The negative attributes have been so defined becausethey negate that which is not appropriate for ourProtector, Allāh. This means that they prohibit forthe Essence what is not suitable to It; for example,such as previous nonexistence. Necessary existencebelongs to Allāh by virtue of His beingcharacterised by preeternity. Likewise, it isinappropriate that Allāh be associated withnon-existence because this Necessary Being ischaracterised by post-eternity. It is alsoinappropriate for Allāh to be compared to allcreation, because this Necessary Being needs to becharacterised by His absolute distinction fromcreation. Nor is it appropriate for our Protector tosubsist through someone else because the NecessaryBeing must subsist by Himself. And it isinappropriate for Him to have a partner in HisBeing, in all His Attributes and in all His actionsor to be compared to anyone else in the creation ofthe world, or in terms of administering it becauseAllāh, the Exalted, is characterised byUniqueness.

Furthermore, there are seven other attributes that arenecessary for Him – attributes that are inherent ina self-subsisting being (sifātul ma‘ānī). These attributes are power,volition, knowledge, life, hearing, vision andspeech. These attributes are called “inherent”because they point to these characteristics that areinherent to the divine being.