Attributes of God

Question 1

What is essence?

Answer 1

Something’s unique nature or substance, it is what something essentially is. When believers talk about God’s essence, they are talking about God’s essential nature or substance.

Question 2

What is an attribute?

Answer 2

A characteristic or property that an essence has. An attribute can be taken away from the essence and still leave the essence in tact. It is not essential for the essence. When believers talk about God’s attributes they mean his characteristics.

Question 3

What do the Mutazilites believe about the Qur’an?

Answer 3

Believed that the Qur’an was created and not eternal. They believed this because otherwise there could be the suggestion that there are two Gods (Allah and the Qur’an) not one God as stated in the Shahadah - “There is no God but God”.

Question 4

How does the Qur’an portray God?

Answer 4

Qur’an passages imply that God has a body and anthropomorphise God.

Question 5

Which Qur’anic passages imply God has a body?

Answer 5

“Your Lord’s face ever remains”
“I created with my own hands”

Question 6

What do the Mutazilites say about God’s characteristics?

Answer 6

Deny that God has a body or any characteristics of a body. They also said that God cannot be seen. Therefore, passages in the Qur’an which imply God has a body must be read metaphorically.

Question 7

What do the Mutazalites argue about adjectives used to describe God in the Qur’an?

Answer 7

Felt that these took away from the oneness of God. Some went as far as denying some of the attributes of God and saying that the attributes of God in the Qur’an are not real. They claimed that these attributes were not in any way separate to God but were a part of his essence.

Question 8

What are the strengths of the Mutazalites?

Answer 8

Kept God’s transcendence
Maintained his oneness

Question 9

Which attributes of God does the Mutazalite view undermine?

Answer 9

God becomes less personal. God is no longer a God who might respond in a merciful way. Emphasis on transcendence means that they have lost sight of God’s imminence.

Question 10

How do the Mutazalites undermine the Qur’an?

Answer 10

The authority of the Qur’an is undermined because it is to be read metaphorically and scriptural references to divine attributes are not real.

Question 11

What’s the issue with the Mutazalites putting too much emphasis on human reason?

Answer 11

People could arrive at different conclusions about God when they are working out what the metaphors mean and human reason is not perfect.

Question 12

What do the Hanbalites believe about God’s attributes?

Answer 12

God’s attributes were revealed in the Qur’an and so they must exist. They should be recited by Muslims and should be believed and affirmed by the sincere Muslim. However, the nature of these attributes is a secret. Some believed in a literal reading of the Qur’an.

Question 13

What is the Hanbalites positions on human reason?

Answer 13

Human reason is limited and cannot understand the attributes. They said that any speculation about the attributes would be limited and could lead to error.

Question 14

What do the Hanbalites argue about God’s transcendence?

Answer 14

Emphasis on God’s transcendence and claimed that debating what the attributes mean could compromise his transcendence.

Question 15

What did Ibn Badran say?

Answer 15

Said that those curious about the nature of the divine attributes should reverently recognise that such matters are veiled from the workings of human reason.

Question 16

What do the Hanbalites argue about the Qur’an?

Answer 16

They believe God speaks with an uncreated voice. They emphasised a literal meaning of the Qur’an but did say that the meaning could be explained by using the words of Prophet and his companions

Question 17

What did Jawzi say about possessing attributes?

Answer 17

He said that, in the Qur’an, whenever a statement was made about Allah possessing something e.g. a soul, Hanbalite scholars assumed that whatever he possessed was an attribute, so Allah has the attribute of a soul.

Question 18

How did Jawzi criticise the Hanbalite’s reading of scripture?

Answer 18

The Hanbalites said that when a text had an unkown meaning it should be taken literally. However, Jawzi points out that a literal meaning is still a meaning and so the meaning is not unkown

Question 19

How does Jawzi criticise how the Hanbalites establish the attributes of Allah?

Answer 19

The literalists established that attributes of Allah through some well known traditions but also traditions that were not genuine and this was dangerous

Question 20

How does Jawzi criticise the consistency of the literalists?

Answer 20

Not consistent with how they understood the Qur’an. Sometimes they interpreted texts and at other times they took a literal meaning

Question 21

What does Jawzi say about the problems Hanbalites face with anthropomorphising God?

Answer 21

As they insisted on a literal interpretation of the Qur’an, when it came to the attributes of God, they read them from a human perspective.

Question 22

How do the Asharites talk about God?

Answer 22

They use negation. They said he is not a substance, not a body, not an accident, not limited to any direction and not in any space. They also used positive terms as well, so God is one, eternal. He possesses attributes such as knowledge power, life will; He is hearing and seeing and has speech.

Question 23

How did Al-Ashari divide God’s attributes?

Answer 23

Attributes of action
Attributes of essence

Question 24

What did Al-Ashari mean by attributes of action?

Answer 24

E.g. forgiving somebody. He said that when the negative aspect of these attributes was applied it still made sense e.g. unforgiving of a repentant sinner.

Question 25

What did Al-Ashari mean by attributes of essence?

Answer 25

E.g. omniscience, omnipotence. The negative aspect of these attributes did not make sense e.g. ignorance is the negative of omniscience, weakness is the negative of power. He said that the attributes of essence in the Qur’an were omniscience, power, will, life, sight, hearing and speech.

Question 26

Why did the Hanbalites disagree with the Mutazalites?

Answer 26

Because they said that taking a literal reading of God’s face, hands etc was to anthropomorphise God and this is wrong. The creator is not like the created.

Question 27

How do the Ash’arites overcome anthropomorphising God?

Answer 27

Doctrine of absolute difference - attributes of God are unique and fundamentally different from those of the created being so should not be compared. The attributes of God were different in nature and so literal readings of them must be wrong. They are different in nature, not in degree.

Question 28

Why did the Ash’arites disagree with the Mu’tazalites?

Answer 28

Mutazalites said that God’s attributes were the same as his essence. Asharites sad this was tantamount to denying God’s attributes which they disagree with.

Question 29

What problems did the Ash’arites face when talking of God’s attributes?

Answer 29

They did not want to say they were the same because that would mean denying God’s attributes and they did not want to do this. Yet they did not want to say that they were entirely different to God as this may challenge the oneness of God and suggest there were many God’s.

Question 30

How did the Ash’arites overcome the problems of talking of God’s attributes?

Answer 30

Said that they were not identical to his essence and yet not different to his essence. Said the essence of God is not the attributes and yet the attributes are inherent in the essence.

Question 31

Why did the Ash’arites believe in talking about God in their way?

Answer 31

If the attributes are the same as essence, it would mean that there were contradictory attributes in God’s essence. If the attributes are the same as the essence then there is no point in them, they would serve no purpose.

Question 32

For the Asharites, what are the consequences of attributes being God’s essence?

Answer 32

God’s essence. Therefore, if attributes are God’s essence, then they would all have to mean the same thing. There would be no distinction between the attributes. yet al-Ashari said that the different attributes did have different meanings e.g. knowledge is different to power and so they cannot be the same as essence.