The attributes are divided into three categories: essential attributes, active attributes, and descriptive attributes.
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The Shaykh : Whether they are essential, active, or descriptive, is that not so? Good.
The essential attributes: such as life, knowledge, and power, and the like. They are divided into: essential conceptual and essential descriptive. As we have passed through, what are the essential descriptive ones?
Those whose names are limbs and parts for us, such as the hand, the face, and the eye. The scholars call these: essential descriptive. They are essential because they are inseparable, and Allah has always been and will always be described by them. They are descriptive because they are received through report, for the intellect does not infer them unless Allah informed us that He has a hand; otherwise, we would not have known of it. But He informed us of it, unlike knowledge, hearing, and sight, for we perceive these by what? By our intellects, along with the indication of the hearing. Therefore, we say regarding such attributes as the hand, the face, and the like: these are descriptive essential attributes. We do not say "parts" or "limbs"; we do not say it that way, out of reverence for this term. However, their names are parts and limbs for us. Why? They say: because a part or a limb is that which is permissible for it to be separated from the whole. That which is called a part or a limb is that which is permissible for it to be separated from the whole. Your hand can be cut off, your leg can be cut off,[Al-Ma'idah 5:38] [Al-Ma'idah 5:33] and they remain, do they not? They remain. But the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, it is not conceivable that any of these attributes by which He described Himself, such as the hand, would ever cease, because He is described by them from eternity and forever. Therefore, we do not say they are limbs or parts. Pay attention to this. But we say their names are limbs and parts with respect to us. Good.
The active attributes: those related to His will. If He wills, He does them, and if He wills, He does not do them. We have mentioned previously that among these active attributes, some are of an essential type, and some are not of an essential type. What is an example of the essential type? Such as speech, for Allah has always been and will always be speaking. And what is not of an essential type is like rising above the Throne and descending to the lowest heaven, because this did not become so except after the existence of the Throne and the heaven, so it is not original. The important thing is that the people of the Sunnah and the community affirm everything by which Allah described Himself.
The essential attributes: such as life, knowledge, and power, and the like. They are divided into: essential conceptual and essential descriptive. As we have passed through, what are the essential descriptive ones?
Those whose names are limbs and parts for us, such as the hand, the face, and the eye. The scholars call these: essential descriptive. They are essential because they are inseparable, and Allah has always been and will always be described by them. They are descriptive because they are received through report, for the intellect does not infer them unless Allah informed us that He has a hand; otherwise, we would not have known of it. But He informed us of it, unlike knowledge, hearing, and sight, for we perceive these by what? By our intellects, along with the indication of the hearing. Therefore, we say regarding such attributes as the hand, the face, and the like: these are descriptive essential attributes. We do not say "parts" or "limbs"; we do not say it that way, out of reverence for this term. However, their names are parts and limbs for us. Why? They say: because a part or a limb is that which is permissible for it to be separated from the whole. That which is called a part or a limb is that which is permissible for it to be separated from the whole. Your hand can be cut off, your leg can be cut off,
[As for] the thief, the male and the female, amputate their hands
وَالسَّارِقُ وَالسَّارِقَةُ فَاقْطَعُوا أَيْدِيَهُمَاIndeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides
إِنَّمَا جَزَاءُ الَّذِينَ يُحَارِبُونَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَيَسْعَوْنَ فِي الْأَرْضِ فَسَادًا أَنْ يُقَتَّلُوا أَوْ يُصَلَّبُوا أَوْ تُقَطَّعَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَأَرْجُلُهُمْ مِنْ خِلَافٍThe active attributes: those related to His will. If He wills, He does them, and if He wills, He does not do them. We have mentioned previously that among these active attributes, some are of an essential type, and some are not of an essential type. What is an example of the essential type? Such as speech, for Allah has always been and will always be speaking. And what is not of an essential type is like rising above the Throne and descending to the lowest heaven, because this did not become so except after the existence of the Throne and the heaven, so it is not original. The important thing is that the people of the Sunnah and the community affirm everything by which Allah described Himself.