In a simplistic way, it can be said that God’s attributes are of three types:

a) always present as Essence of God,

b) always removed from His Essence, and

c) Sometimes present and at other times absent

The first category has always been present as the essence of God. These are called the Personal Attributes. These are also called Sifat al-Kamalia, Sifat al-Jamalia, Sifat al-Haqiqiyya and Sifat al-Zatul Azafa. These are popularly enumerated as eight (albeit His attributes were numerous). These related to – Power, Knowledge, Life, Intent, Perception, Eternal existence, Speech and Justice.

These aspects of God’s attributes have been discussed in detail in the previous chapter, where it had been proven that since these attributes are exclusive to the Essence of God i.e. there is no separation between His Person and Attributes, the true understanding of these attributes is as much a mystery as is His Essence.

This was why the author stated that when we associated God with these attributes, then our real purpose was to deny the opposite in relation to God’s Being. For example, when we say that God is Knowledgeable, we mean to say that He is not ignorant, and when it is said that He is Mighty, we mean to say that He was not powerless. Otherwise, we would be at a loss to understand the true nature of God’s knowledge and might and we would not be able to comprehend His Essence and Personality.

The second category of attributes is called the Attributes of Negation (Sifat as-Salbia). These have also been discussed in detail, in the previous chapter.

The third category is called the Attributes of Actions or Special Attributes, because those were linked with God’s actions and not with His Being. These were attributes such as Creator, Provider, Giver of life and death. There was a time when God did not perform these acts. Therefore, at that time He was not a Creator and a Giver of life and death. However, when He performed these jobs, he was called a Creator and Provider. This example clears the difference between His attributes of the Essence and those of His actions.

A necessary explanation of these majestic attributes would be that these are essential to His Essence and could not be equated to their opposites (as these would mean God is deficient). These are the Attributes of His Essence. These are related to Knowledge, Power, allocation of Life and Death. These attributes could not be associated with their opposites (Ignorance, Impotency and Death, at any moment of time), for the reasons explained earlier.

Those characteristics, which are not necessarily required to be with God all the time, and it might be possible to equate them with their opposites, without causing any distortion in (the majesty of) God, are called Attributes of Action, such as, Creation, Provision of Sustenance, handing over of life and death etc. It is true to say that there was a slot in time, when God was present, but due to the absence of acts of creation and sustenance, He was not a Sustainer and a Creator. This difference between Attributes of His Essence and Actions was in line with what Kulani had mentioned in Kafi and was mentioned by several other authors.

For further reference readers could refer to the treatise of Majmu'a al-Aasaar al-Qalami ath-Thiqat al-Islam.