المعنى الاصطلاحي

They are the attributes of Allah Almighty that are proven by combining intellectual evidence with the sound natural disposition, in addition to Islamic texts that affirm them.

الشرح المختصر

"As-Sifaat-ul-`Aqliyyah" (attributes proven by reason) are those attributes by which Allah has described Himself; with which His Messenger, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, described Him; and which can be proven by way of reason. According o the Ash‘ariyyah, who are the followers of Abu al-Hasan `Ali ibn Isma`il al-Ashari, they are only seven attributes. They call these attributes "Sifaat al-ma‘aani", which means that they indicate additional meanings to Allah’s essence and are not intrinsic to it. These attributes are: knowledge, life, ability, hearing, seeing, speech, and will. Some of these attributes are related to Allah’s essence, and some are related to his actions. As for the rest of the attributes, which are either "as-sifaat al-khabariyyah", which are established via textual proof only, or "as-sifaat-al-fi‘liyyah", which refer to Allah’s actions that are related to His will and power, the Ash‘ariyyah negate them all and believe that it is necessary to apply "ta’weel" (interpreting attributes beyond their apparent meaning) or "tafweed" (affirming the wording without understanding the meaning). To depend on reasoning in proving these attributes rests on the principle that if Allah is not described by a certain attribute, then he is certainly described by its opposite, i.e. if He were not Alive, then He must have been dead. Likewise, if He were not All-Knowing, then He must have been ignorant, and if He were not Able, then He must have been unable. Therefore, Allah’s life, ability, and knowledge are affirmed through the manifestation of His actions which He carries out in his creation with such precision and proficiency that prove to us that the Doer is the One Who possesses the attributes of life, ability, and knowledge, since it is impossible that such actions are done by the one who is described by the opposites of these attributes, namely, death, inability, and ignorance.