is not the Creator of created beings and has no existence. Even if its existence were supposed, it would be among the most deficient essences; indeed, every living creature would be more perfect than it. For we know by clear reason that what is alive is more perfect than what is not, that one who knows is more perfect than one who does not, and that one who has power is more perfect than one who does not.

The assertion, “If He were supposed to possess something by which He is perfected, His essence, considered in itself, would be deficient,” is false for several reasons.

First, His essence conceived as stripped of attributes has no reality. Alternatively, we may say that we do not know that it exists, or that we know an essence stripped of perfection to be nonexistent.

The word dhāt (“essence”) is a later coinage. It is the feminine form of dhū (“possessor of”); thus, dhāt means possessing knowledge, possessing power, or possessing life. To posit an essence without attributes is therefore to posit a noun that necessarily entails a possessive relationship, yet without that relationship.

For this reason, some Arabic grammarians, such as Ibn Burhān and al-Jawlīqī, objected to using this word. They said: “This is a feminine form, and no feminine designation may be applied to the Lord.” Those who used it, however, meant a self possessing knowledge, or a reality possessing knowledge.

In short, it was his conception of the essence as stripped of attributes that led him into these false imaginings.