The third argument:

It may be said: The statements, “The Muslim community has agreed that Allah Most High is free from deficiency,” and, “It has agreed that Allah Most High is free from defects, infirmities, and the like,” have not been transmitted verbatim from every member of the community. Yet we know that every Muslim holds Allah Most High to be free from deficiency and defects. Indeed, all rational people agree on this. No one who reveres the Creator, glorified and exalted be He, attributes to Allah a quality that he believes constitutes an infirmity, defect, or deficiency in His case. Although some heretics describe Him in terms they themselves regard as deficient and defective, such people belong to the same category as those who deny the Creator Most High.

Thus, those who deny the divine attributes deny them only because they believe that affirming them entails deficiency, such as coming into existence, contingency, and resemblance to living beings. Those who affirm them do so only because they believe that affirming them entails perfection, whereas their absence necessarily entails deficiency, nonexistence, and resemblance to inanimate things. The same applies to those who affirm divine decree and those who deny it.

Indeed, some who deny prophethood claim that they do so out of reverence for Allah, deeming Him too exalted to have a human messenger. Likewise, those who associate partners with Allah do so out of reverence for Him, deeming Him too exalted to be worshipped without an intermediary between Him and His creation.

Since this is so, it is evident: