We here quote a passage from the first sermon of the Nahjul...

We here quote a passage from the first sermon of the Nahjul Balaghah[^13]which corroborates as well as explains this idea: "All praise is due to Allah, who cannot be adequately praised by any rhetoricians, whose blessings cannot be counted by any enumerators, whom due homage cannot be paid by the most assiduous, who cannot be fully comprehended howsoever one may try, who cannot be reached by intelligence howsoever deep it may go, whose attributes are not limited by any limitation.

There exist no words to describe Him fully." As we see, in the above passage the boundlessness of the Divine attributes has been emphasized. In the same sermon after a few sentences Imam Ali says: "Perfect devotion to Him means to deny the imputation of attributes to Him, for the person to whom an attribute is imputed, bears witness that he is different from the attribute imputed to him and every attribute of him bears witness that it is different from the person to whom it has been imputed.

He who imputes an attribute to Allah compares Him (to something and he who compares him. . .". (See: Sermon - 1, p. 137, Peak of Eloquence, ISP, 1984 In the first passage it has been affirmed that Allah has attributes (whose attributes are not limited by any limitation). In the second passage also it is confirmed that He has attributes, but instruction has been given to impute no attributes to Him.

The wording of these passages shows that the attributes which He has are unlimited like the limitlessness of His own self, that they are identical with His essence, and the attributes from which He is free are those which are limited and separate from His essence and from each other. Thus the unity of the Divine tributes means to acknowledge the unity of Allah's essence and His attributes. III.

Unity of the Work of Allah Unity of His work means to recognize that the world with all its systems, ways, causes and effects is the work of Allah alone and has originated from His will. Nothing in the world is self-existing. Everything depends on Him. In the words of the Holy Qur'an, He is the sustainer of the whole world. The existing things are not independent with regard to their effect and causation.

As a result, as Allah has no partner in his essence, similarly He has no partner in His work. Every agent and every cause owes its existence and effectiveness to Him and depends on Him. All power as well as ability to do things belong to Him alone.