with perfections, would be better than you. Anyone who described Him as blind, deaf, or blind in one eye, while allowing that these deficiencies could cease to affect Him, would be better than you.

They make much of the outrageous accounts related about some misguided Jews and Christians: that Allah regretted the Flood so much that He bit His finger until it bled; that He wept over the Flood until His eyes became inflamed, and the angels visited Him in His illness; that He swore that He would not drown His children; and that one of the Children of Israel found Him lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem. Some Christian books also say that He sleeps.

There are also those who say that a human being—such as the Messiah of guidance or the messiah of misguidance—is Allah, despite his eating and drinking, or being blind in one eye. Such people, who describe Him with these deficiencies while allowing that He can possess perfection, are better than those who say that He cannot possess attributes of perfection under any circumstances.

Indeed, someone who portrays Him as eating and drinking is better than someone who says that He cannot be living, knowing, or powerful. For a living being that eats and drinks is better than an inanimate object that neither knows nor speaks, neither hears nor sees.

It is thus clear that those who deny Him attributes of perfection are worse than all these groups. They have made Him like something nonexistent or inanimate, whereas the others have likened Him to an animal possessing an attribute of perfection alongside some deficiency. The former’s denial of His attributes of perfection, and their likening Him to nonexistent and inanimate things, is therefore worse than the latter’s denial of some attributes of perfection while affirming many others. Likening Him to an animal is less objectionable than likening Him to something inanimate or nonexistent.

The same applies to someone who is told: He is the Necessary Existent, for if He were not necessary in existence, He would be contingent. He is eternal, for if He were not eternal, He would have come into existence. He is the Creator, for a self-subsisting being, if not a creator, would be created. He is distinct from the world and outside it, for if He were not distinct from it and outside it, He would be within it, confined and contained.

[Imam Ahmad’s words in refutation of the Jahmiyyah and the heretics, affirming Allah’s highness and His rising over the Throne]

Among those who mentioned this was Imam Ahmad, in his work (The Refutation of the Heretics and the Jahmiyyah). He said: “Explanation of the misguided Jahmiyyah’s denial that Allah is