The Most Essential Attribute of Allah

The will of Allah (swt) has been described as an attribute, and al-Ṭaḥāwī says that nothing happens except what He wills. The will of Allah (swt) is a divine attribute, and it has been defined as an eternal attribute which is associated with Allah (swt), which is possessed by Allah (swt), and which determines every possible being: which specifies every possible being as to whether it should stay unexistent or should come into existence; how it should be, and how it should not be. The will of Allah (swt) is the attribute which determines these things.

This is only a possible meaning of what the will of Allah is, because we are not privy to that information. This needs to be kept in mind: when we speak about the attributes of Allah, we are saying things which are possibilities, based on what our scholars have told us from the Qur'an, based on the Qur'an and Sunnah. Nobody has been privy to Allah (swt) to such a level as to say that yes, the will of Allah is exactly like this. These are just possible descriptions, based on what He has said in the Qur'an.

His being alive is actually very important, because that is necessary for all of the other attributes. If there is no life, then the other attributes cannot exist either. So life is the most essential attribute of Allah (swt). Life is the most essential attribute of Allah. The next chapter carries on from Ḥayyun lā yamūt, to say a bit more about that before continuing, inshāʾAllāh.