Classifications of God's Attributes

Christian theologians find God's attributes in the Bible. Muslims theologians find Allah's attributes in Qur'an and Sunnah.

There are three main classifications of God's attributes in Protestant theology:

1. Communicable and incommunicable attributes. The incommunicable attributes belong only to God (for example, eternity, immensity), while the communicable attributes to some extend may belong to people (for example, wisdom and justice).

2. Natural and moral attributes. The natural attributes describe God's nature (for example, self-existence and eternity), while the moral attributes describe His will (for example, justice and holiness).

3. Absolute and relative attributes. The absolute attributes characterize God Himself (for example, eternity and immensity), while the relative attributes characterize His relation to the creation (for example, omniscience).

According to Sunni theology, Allah's attributes are classified in the following way:
1. Al-Wujud - the attribute of Allah's essence (existence).
2. As-Salbi - the attributes that deny everything inappropriate to Allah. Al-Wujud and as-Salbi are sometimes put into the same group - as-Salbi or az-Zati (Sifats az-Zatiyya) (the essential attributes of Allah).
3. As-Subuti (Sifats as-Subutiyya) - the attributes that are necessary or mandatory for Allah.
4. Al-Jaizi - the attributes that are optional or possible for Allah. These attributes are also called al-Fi'li (Sifats al-Fi'liyya) - the attributes of Allah's actions.
5. Al-Habari - the informing attributes of Allah.

Actually, there are more similarities than differences between God's attributes and names in Christianity and Islam. Of course, I do not mean the doctrine of the Trinity that Islam completely rejects.