المعنى الاصطلاحي

Attributes that Allah, the Almighty, negated for Himself in His Book or through His Prophet, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him; as they do not befit His majesty.

الشرح المختصر

“As-Sifaat-us-Salbiyyah" (negative attributes) are the attributes which are accompanied by a negation particle, like 'not' or 'never'. They occur frequently in the Qur'an, and they are all attributes of imperfection and deficiency in relation to Allah, the Almighty. Such negation occurs in the Qur'an because it denotes that Allah, the Almighty, possesses the perfection of the opposite of the negated attributes. Therefore, negation is not intended per se, for it does not involve praise or perfection; yet it involves affirmation of the perfection, praise, and exaltation of Allah, the Almighty, by emphasizing the opposite of the negated deficiency, as well as by highlighting Allah's perfect qualities and wise actions. Indeed, complete lack of a quality is nothing at all, let alone being praise and perfection. Examples of "as-sifaat-us-salbiyyah" include: sleep, powerlessness, fatigue, and injustice. It can be said, for example, that negating sleep and napping from Allah actually signifies that He, the Almighty, is the Ever-Living and the Ever-Watchful. "As-sifaat-us-salbiyyah" are mostly mentioned for a number of reasons: to demonstrate Allah's overall perfection, to rebut the claims made by the liars against Allah, and to dispel any illusion of a deficiency in His perfection with regard to a certain matter.