and hearing and sight, is more perfect than an inanimate thing incapable of these qualities ن. If it is impossible for the Necessary Being to be capable of possessing attributes of perfection yet lack them, then it is all the more impossible for Him to be incapable of possessing them.

[Second]

Every attribute of perfection that entails no deficiency is more fitting for the Necessary Being than for a contingent being. His possession of it is more fitting than a contingent being’s possession of it, because He is more perfect. Moreover, every perfection possessed by a contingent being comes from the Necessary Being. They concede that every perfection possessed by what is known comes from its cause; thus, the effect has greater entitlement to it.

[Third]

Every attribute that the Lord—glorified be He—can possess is necessarily His, since none of His attributes can depend on anything other than Him.

[Fourth]

The negation of these attributes is a deficiency, even if it is not called ignorance, deafness, or muteness.

[Fifth]

The distinction they draw between negation and affirmation, and between privation and possession, by calling one thing dead but not another, is their own convention, which need not be followed. Allah has called inanimate things dead, as in His saying, Exalted is He:

“Those whom they invoke besides Allah create nothing, but are themselves created. * They are dead, not alive.”

Al-Nahl 20–21

And in His saying, Exalted is He:

“And a sign for them is the dead earth.”

Yā-Sīn: 33

And other similar passages.