Where Does All This Stuff Come From?

Now to the classification of the attributes, which is worth writing down for anyone who wishes to. In all, there are going to be about five different categories, five different categories. There are some overlaps in some things, and there are some differences of opinion about another category.

The first is the personal attribute. It is called the ṣifah nafsiyyah: the personal attribute. The second is called the ṣifāt salbiyyah, which are the negating attributes, negating or cancelling attributes. The reason they are called negating or cancelling attributes is that they negate the opposite of that regarding Allah (swt). For example, take ḥayāh: it negates the fact that there is death. So by negating the opposite, it is establishing itself.

So the first is the personal attribute; the second is the negating or cancelling attribute, the ṣifāt salbiyyah; and the third are the ṣifāt al-maʿānī — ṣifāt al-maʿānī, or wujūdiyyah; there are two different names for them — which are the abstract or affirmative attributes: the abstract or affirmative attributes.

Some readers may be thinking at this point: where does all this stuff come from? These categorizations did not exist during the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), so where is all of this stuff being made up from? Well, basically, all of these attributes are from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. It is just that they were not categorized. People simply had that knowledge. There was no need to categorize, and individually define, and see: this attribute, the function is this, and so on and so forth. So it is not a bidʿah in that sense.

The personal attribute of Allah is only one. The ṣifah nafsiyyah, the first, is only one: that is wujūd. Being: to be; that Allah is. There is no need to go into this, but there is a difference of opinion among the scholars as to whether wujūd is like an attribute that is an added description of the essence, or is one and the same as the essence. Regardless of all of that, it is His personal attribute. Allah is mawjūd: Allah is existent; Allah is a being.