Ma`rifat Kalami

The question of God's attributes and the relationship of attributes to the divine essence has given rise to discussions in Islamic thought known as " attributive monotheism " or "the ontology of divine attributes." Since the first century up to now, the responses of Muslim scholars with different perspectives have led to various views on the existential nature of divine attributes and their relationship to the divine Essence. By examining the works and assertions of Muslim scholars, this article reviews and analyses the well-known theories of " substitution," "objectivity," and " superaddition " as well as the less widely discussed theories of "negation of attributes," "states," " mental considerations " "conceptual synonymy," and "neither He nor other than He " in the ontology of divine attributes, and the course of developments of this issue in Islamic thoughts.