A Comparative Study of the Relationship between Divine Essence and Attributes According to Theological Religions

Islamic theologians’ thoughts about the relationship between God’s attributes and essence are restricted to two theological approaches: the affirmative (cataphatic) theology and the privative (apophatic) theology. The majority of theologians believe in the affirmative approach of the perfect attributes for God’s essence, but they disagree in the quality of the relationship between His attributes and essence. The famous Shia scholars, Zaydīyya, some Mu'tazila and theology philosophers believe in the theory of objectivity. They believe that God’s essence and attributes have one truth outside, and they accuse any affirmative approach that is against the theory of objectivity for its mistake in believing in the combination and the multiplicity of the eternal attributes. Ḥadīth scholars and the Salafis believe in the theory of otherness, they believe that attributes are extraneous to the essence and have a truth separate from God’s essence. The scholars of Ashʿarī and Māturīdiyyah adhere to the theory of Qaimiyyah, they believe that God’s inherent attributes are neither the same as Him nor different from Him, and they accuse any affirmative approach that believes in either the combination or the manifestation of attributes in God’s essence. Emphasizing the theory of the negation of attributes, those who believe in the privative approach with the belief that the negation of any similitude and combination from God’s essence requires denying all attributes of His essence, are divided into two groups within the scope of purification (tanzih); among them, the ʾIsmāʿīlīyah believe in the absolute purification and some Twelver Shia and Mu'tazila theologians believe in the theory of deputyship (niyabah).