He pointed to when He said: “We have indeed set forth for mankind in this Qur’an every kind of parable” (al-Zumar 27). These parables are intellectual analogies, whether in the form of universal syllogisms or analogies by resemblance. Under this heading also fall what they term “demonstrations,” namely the universal syllogism composed of certain premises—although, linguistically, the word burhān is broader than that, for Allah called the two signs given to Moses “two proofs.”

To make this clearer: in matters of divine knowledge it is impermissible to adduce an analogy of parity in which the original and the secondary case are treated alike, or a universal syllogism whose instances stand on equal footing. Nothing resembles Allah, so He may not be likened to anything, nor may He and His creation be subsumed under a single universal proposition whose members are equivalent. For this reason, when groups among the philosophers and dialectical theologians employed such syllogisms concerning the divine attributes, they never attained certainty; their evidences contradicted one another, and when pursued to the end produced only bewilderment and confusion, for they saw their arguments either collapsing or canceling one another out.

The correct approach is to use the analogy a fortiori, whether by resemblance or universality, as He, exalted, has said: “And to Allah belongs the highest similitude” (al-Nahl 60). Thus, whenever we know that any perfection possessed by a contingent or originated being is utterly free of deficiency—in other words, a perfection of existence that entails no non-existence—the Necessary, Pre-Eternal One is even more entitled to that perfection. Every perfection, wholly without defect, that is found in a created, dependent, caused, and governed being is something it has merely borrowed from its Creator, Lord, and Governor; therefore He is worthier of it than the creature. And every deficiency or intrinsic fault—namely the negation of that perfection—that must be denied of any class of created and originated beings