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Part One · Chapter Fifty-Three — Attributes of Action and the Unity of the Divine Essence
What led to the belief in the existence of attributes for the Creator in those who hold this belief is close to what led to the belief in corporealism in those who hold that belief: the corporealist was not led to it by a rational investigation but followed the external sense of the Scriptural texts — and the same is the case with attributes. When the books of the prophets and the Book of Revelation described Him, exalted be He, with attributes, those who took the matter at its external sense believed Him to be possessed of attributes. They thus declared Him free of corporeality but did not declare Him free of the states of corporeality — that is, the accidents, I mean the soul-dispositions that are all qualities. Every attribute that the believers in attributes claim is an essential attribute of God, exalted be He, you will find that its meaning is the meaning of quality — even if they do not expressly call it that — a likening to what they know of the states of every body that has an animal soul. Concerning all of this it was said, 'The Torah speaks in the language of human beings' — and the intent in all of them is a description by perfection, not the very same meaning that is a perfection for the souled creatures; and most of them are attributes of His different actions.
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The different actions do not entail different meanings in the agent. I shall give you an analogy from things in our experience — namely, that the agent can be one, and diverse actions proceed from it, even if it is not possessed of will — all the more so if it acts by will. The analogy: fire melts some things and solidifies others, cooks and burns and whitens and blackens. If a person described fire as whitening, blackening, burning, cooking, solidifying, and melting — that would be true; yet one who does not know the nature of fire would suppose that there are six different meanings in it: a meaning by which it blackens, another meaning by which it whitens, a third by which it cooks, a fourth by which it burns, a fifth by which it melts, and a sixth by which it solidifies — and all these are opposing actions, the meaning of one being not the meaning of the other. But one who knows the nature of fire knows that by one quality — heat — it performs all these actions. If this is the case with what acts by nature, all the more so regarding an agent that acts by will; all the more so regarding Him, exalted be He, who transcends all description — when we derived from our perception of Him various relational meanings, since the meaning of knowledge is not the meaning of power in us, and the meaning of power is not the meaning of will — how do we then require that there be in Him different essential meanings, such that there is in Him a meaning by which He knows, and a meaning by which He wills, and a meaning by which He is powerful? For this is the meaning of the attributes they speak of. Some of them state this explicitly and enumerate the additional meanings beyond the essence; and some do not state it explicitly, but it is explicit in their belief even if not expressed in comprehensible speech — as in the saying of some of them: 'powerful by His essence, knowing by His essence, living by His essence, willing by His essence.'
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I will give you an analogy from the rational faculty that exists in a human being: it is one faculty with no multiplicity in it, and by it one acquires the sciences and the crafts — and by it alone one sews and builds and weaves and constructs and learns geometry and governs a city. These are different actions necessarily proceeding from one simple faculty with no multiplicity in it; and those actions are very different — the number of crafts that the rational faculty produces is virtually without limit. So let it not seem strange in the case of God, may He be exalted and glorified, that these different actions proceed from one simple essence with no multiplicity and no additional meaning at all; and that every attribute found in the books of God, exalted be He, is an attribute of His action, not an attribute of His essence — or it indicates absolute perfection without there being a composite essence made of different meanings, because the mere fact that they do not apply the word 'composition' does not nullify the meaning of composition from an essence that possesses attributes.
But here is the source of the confusion that led them to this — and I shall make it clear to you: those who believed in attributes do not hold them on account of the multiplicity of actions; rather they say: yes, a single essence can perform different actions, but the essential attributes of God, exalted be He, are not among His actions — for it is inconceivable that God created His own essence.
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They differ among themselves regarding those attributes they call essential — I mean in their number, since all of them follow the text of some book. Let us mention for you what all of them agree upon and claim to be a matter of reason that is not merely following the text of a prophetic saying — and these are four attributes: living, powerful, knowing, willing. These, they say, are distinct meanings and perfections such that it is impossible for the Deity to lack any of them — and they are inconceivable as falling within the category of His actions. This is a summary of their position.
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What you should know is that in Him, exalted be He, the meaning of knowledge is the same as the meaning of life — because every being that apprehends its own essence is living and knowing in one and the same sense. This is so when by 'knowledge' we mean His apprehension of His own essence; and the apprehending essence is identically the apprehended essence without any doubt, since He is not, in our view, composed of two things — one that apprehends and another that does not apprehend — as a human being is composed of an apprehending soul and a non-apprehending body. So when I mean by our saying 'knowing' the apprehension of His essence — then life and knowledge are one meaning. But they do not intend this meaning; rather they intend His apprehension of His creatures.
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Similarly, without doubt, power and will are not each of them found in the Creator with respect to His essence — for He is not powerful over His own essence, nor is He described by His will toward His own essence; and no one can even conceive of this. Rather, these attributes were supposed only with respect to various relations between God, exalted be He, and His creatures — namely, that He is powerful in that He can create what He creates, and willing in that He brings the existent into existence in the manner in which He brought it into existence, and knowing in what He brought into existence.
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It has thus been shown to you that these attributes too are not with respect to His essence but with respect to His creatures. Therefore we — the community of those who truly affirm divine unity — say: just as we do not say that there is in His essence an additional meaning by which He created the heavens and another meaning by which He created the elements and a third meaning by which He created the intellects — so likewise we do not say that there is in Him an additional meaning by which He is powerful, and another meaning by which He wills, and a third meaning by which He knows His creatures. Rather His essence is one simple thing, with no additional meaning in it whatsoever; that very essence created everything it created and knows — with no additional meaning at all. And these different attributes make no difference whether they are on account of the actions or on account of various relations between Him and what He made — and in accordance with what we have also explained of the reality of relation and that it is merely supposed.
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This is what should be believed concerning the attributes mentioned in the books of the prophets — or one should believe regarding some of them that they are attributes indicating perfection by way of analogy to our own perfections as we understand them, as will be explained.