The Attribute, the Effect and the Association

Another thing about the attributes. With the nature of the attributes understood: what are they? Each is a quality that is associated with Allah, that is eternal by the fact that Allah is eternal, and everlasting by the fact that Allah is everlasting. So it is a special relationship: they are not completely separate from Him, and neither are they His essence itself.

Now, each of the attributes has an association. When a person with knowledge says something, people say: “Mashallah, that's all knowledge coming from this person.” So there is an effect of that person's knowledge. To be able to hear something, there must be something that is able to be heard, for our quality of being able to hear to come into effect. For someone to be able to make something… the attribute: if a person has the ability, the power to make something, then when they actually make it, that is an effect of their making ability. So there is an attribute, the ability, and there is the effect of that ability: those two things.

For example, Allah has the ability to create: khalq, the ability to create. What we see around us is the makhlūq, the created. It is the effect, the athar, the impression of that creating. And obviously there is an association between the two, because they are not independent. And one thing to note is that the attributes of Allah are eternal. The effects are created. This entire world is created, but it was created through something that is eternal, the attributes, by Allah (swt). So this should be made clear: the attributes are eternal, uncreated, and the effects are created.

This is called the ṣifah, or the ṣifāt in the plural. The effect is called athar. And the link between the two is called association, or the taʿalluq. The taʿalluq: association. The association in most of the attributes is also created, though not in all of them. It just depends on the attribute.