The Five Negating Attributes

Next, the negating attributes. These are very important. They are called the negating attributes because they negate their opposite from Allah (swt). The first is called qidam, which is beginninglessness. What does that negate? That He had a beginning. He is beginningless. Number one, qidam: beginninglessness. Number two, baqāʾ: endlessness, or everlastingness. Instead of everlastingness, it is translated as endlessness, to show what it is negating: it is negating an end.

Waḥdāniyyah, number three, which is oneness. That is negating a partner in anything; negating any comparison with Allah (swt). Number four is qiyām bi-l-nafs, by which He becomes Qayyūm: Allāhu lā ilāha illā Huwa al-Ḥayyu al-Qayyūm. Qiyām bi-l-nafs means self-subsistence. That is negating that He needs someone else to subsist through. And number five is mukhālafatun li-l-ḥawādith, which means absolute dissimilarity, absolute dissimilarity to anything. So it negates a similarity: this attribute negates a similarity.

These are worth writing down, and worth pondering over, because they help us to refine our understanding of our Creator, and help with questions that may arise, and help us to respond to things that we see around us. So there are five: qidam and baqāʾ, which are basically beginninglessness and endlessness; waḥdāniyyah, oneness; qiyām bi-l-nafs, self-subsistence; and mukhālafatun li-l-ḥawādith, absolute dissimilarity to all things.

The wujūd… looked at closely, everything is a negating factor, in a sense, because to establish something is obviously to negate something else. So even wujūd is a negating attribute in a sense. But it is so important, so essential; that is why they call it the essential attribute. Being negates the fact that He is not a being, that He is non-existent. But that applies everywhere. They gave it a special position, as the personal attribute, because it is so important.