Library Islam Islam: Faith, Practice & History Part I: Beliefs Lesson 6-TawhÄ«d & SifÄt (B) The Negative Attributes (As-SifÄt As-Salbiyyah)
(B) The Negative Attributes (As-SifÄt As-Salbiyyah)
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(B) The Negative Attributes (As-SifÄt As-Salbiyyah)
The term “negative attributes” means those attributes which cannot be found in God because they are incompatible with the concept of Divinity. Similar to the positive attributes, the negatives attributes are also many but only eight are normally listed because of their importance. The eight as-sifÄt as-salbiyyah are as follows:
1.Partner (as-Sharīk): God has no partner or colleague.
2.Compound (al-Murakkab): God is neither made nor composed of any material. He cannot be divided even in imagination.
3.Place (al-MakÄn): God has neither a center nor a place because He has no body; and He is everywhere because His power and knowledge is magnificently apparent everywhere.
4.Incarnation (al-Hulūl): God does not enter into anything or any person, nor does anything enter Him. Therefore, the belief in incarnation is incompatible with the concept of Divinity.
5.Change (Mahall-e HawÄdith): God is not subject to change.
6.Visible (al-Mar'i): God is not visible; He has not been seen, is not seen, and will never be seen.
7.Need (IhtiyÄj): God is not deficient in any virtue, so He does not need anything. He is free from want.
8.`Acquired Attribute' (Sifat-e ZÄ'id): The attributes of AllÄh are not separate from His person. When we say that God is Omnipotent and Merciful, we do not mean that his power and mercy are something different from His person.
To understand the concept of `additional quality' or `acquired attribute' more clearly, read the following two sentences: “Tea is sweet” and “Sugar is sweet”. In the first example, sweetness is an additional quality for tea; the tea was not sweet when it was made, it became sweet after sugar was added to it. But in the second example, sweetness is an essential quality not an added quality for sugar; the sugar was sweet from the day it became a sugar; a “sugar” which is not sweet is not sugar at all. The positive attributes of God are like sweetness is to sugar; they are not additional to the person of God. Power, mercy, knowledge, justice, virtue, truth, etc. were never separate from His person.
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This lesson is entirely based on chapter 26 & 27 of Syed Saeed Akhtar Rizvi's God of Islam, Dar-es-salaam, 1970. It has been compiled and edited to suit this course by S.M. Rizvi.
