Shaykh Abu Ja’far said that when we describe an attribute, which was related to the essence of God, our intention is to deny its opposite. For example, when we say that God is All-Hearing (Sami), All-Seeing (Baseer), Knowledgeable (Aleem), Wise (Hakeem), Honourable (Aziz), Powerful (Qadir), Living (Hayy) and Established (Qayyum) from eternity, we want to establish that there is nothing but the best attributed to Him, He has no associates with Him, and all this is linked to His Person or Essence.

We could not say that God was Creator and active from the infinity and His aspirations were always linked with His Creatures or He was pleased with all, and not irate with anyone, or He was continually providing sustenance and benevolence, or He was Creator of languages (speech) from eternity. All these attributes were related to His actions and were therefore, probable or (Hadith). Consequently, it would not be proper for us to associate God with these attributes since eternity.