has established it? This is a familiar objection raised by those who deny the divine attributes, and it is invalid for several reasons.

First, it may be said: By opposition we mean negation and affirmation. Denying these attributes entails imperfection in whoever is denied them, whether or not that being is said to be capable of possessing them. For clear reason establishes that whoever possesses life, knowledge, speech, hearing, and sight is more perfect than whoever does not. Whatever is supposed to lack these attributes, such as an inanimate object, is less perfect than what possesses them.

He himself has used the argument from perfection to establish the attributes, and it is, in reality, of the same kind as this argument. He said:

“Know that there is an elegant method here, easy to employ in argument and readily understood. A fair-minded scholar of profound learning would find it difficult to evade it or challenge its evidentiary force. It can be applied consistently to establish all the attributes termed nafsāniyya. Allah inspired me with this method, and I have not found anyone else presenting it in this form or with this precise formulation. It proceeds as follows: What is understood by each of these aforementioned attributes, considered apart from whatever possesses it, is either an attribute of perfection or not an attribute of perfection. It cannot fail to be an attribute of perfection. Otherwise, in the observable world, whoever possesses it would be less perfect than whoever does not, if its absence were in fact a perfection; or equal to whoever does not possess it, if its absence were not in fact a perfection. This contradicts what we know self-evidently in the observable world. Thus, only the first alternative remains, namely, that it is, in