First:
One may say: This is merely your terminology. Otherwise, whatever is not alive is called dead, as Allah, Most High, says:

“And those they invoke besides Allah create nothing, while they themselves are created. They are dead, not alive.”
[al-Nahl: 20–21]

And He, Most High, says:

“And a sign for them is the dead earth: We have brought it to life.”
[Yā Sīn: 33]

And He says:

“Know that Allah gives life to the earth after its death.”
[al-Hadīd: 17]

Second:
Whatever is incapable of possessing attributes of perfection is more deficient than that which is capable of possessing them but lacks them. An inanimate object is more deficient than a blind, deaf, and mute living creature. If His possessing attributes of deficiency, while being capable of possessing attributes of perfection, constitutes a deficiency and a flaw from which He must be declared free, then His being incapable of possessing attributes of perfection is an even greater deficiency and flaw.

Thus, these people ultimately liken Him to inanimate objects, then to nonexistent things, and finally to things whose existence is impossible.

Third:
The absence of life, knowledge, and power is itself a deficiency in anything that lacks them, whether it is assumed to be capable or incapable of possessing them. Indeed, that which is incapable of possessing them is more deficient than that which is capable, just as life, knowledge, and power are themselves attributes of perfection.

The very presence of these attributes is perfection, and their very absence is deficiency, whether or not that absence is called death, ignorance, and inability. Likewise, hearing, sight, and speech are perfection, and their absence is deficiency.

This matter has been discussed at length elsewhere, in greater detail than is appropriate here.