all the other scriptural and rational proofs. For His knowledge of everything is necessarily known to be part of the religion of the messengers and is established by conclusive proofs.

Thus, if it entails invalidating these two principles, which are among the innovations introduced by the Jahmiyyah, this is further evidence that truths agree and harmonize with one another. It also confirms what the Messenger brought, its agreement with sound reason, and the absence of any contradiction in what comes from Allah. By contrast, all opposing positions are contradictory.

Consider the arguments of those who deny the attributes: they are all among the most untenable arguments. One example is the claim made by some philosophers:

“Knowledge confers no additional nobility, so one who knows is no nobler than one who does not know.”

He also says:

“If He possesses knowledge, He is thereby made deficient in Himself, attaining perfection through something other than Himself.”

As for the first claim, it is a self-evident truth, firmly rooted in people’s innate dispositions, that one who knows is more perfect than one who does not, just as one who has power is more perfect than one who does not.

This is why He, glory be to Him, presents this truth through a rhetorical question expressing disapproval. This shows that it is firmly rooted in people’s innate dispositions, and that anyone who denies it has made a claim repugnant to that innate disposition. Thus, He, Most High, says:

“Say, ‘Are those who know equal to those who do not know?’” [al-Zumar: 9]

This indicates that one who knows and one who does not know are not equal. It also indicates that equating them is repugnant to people’s innate dispositions, which reject such an equation and rebuke whoever makes it.

Likewise, He, Most High, says:

“Say, ‘Is it the two males He has forbidden, or the two females, or what the wombs of the two females contain?’” [al-Anʿām: 143]