Fourth: Those who follow this line of argument are riddled with contradictions. Whenever one of them affirms something, another presses him with the logical consequences of that affirmation; and whenever one of them denies something, another presses him with the consequences of that denial. Thus, when those who affirm the attributes—life, knowledge, power, speech, hearing, and sight—are confronted by the negators, such as the Muʿtazilites, who say, “This amounts to corporeality, for these attributes are accidents, and an accident can exist only in a body; we know of nothing described by these attributes except a body,” the affirmers reply, “Yet you yourselves say that He is living, knowing, and powerful while denying that He is a body, even though you know of no living, knowing, powerful being except a body. You have therefore affirmed something contrary to what you know—and so do we.” They further retort, “You have affirmed a living, knowing, powerful being who nevertheless has no life, knowledge, or power. Such a contradiction is self-evidently impossible to the intellect.”

Then these very affirmers, when they address the one who maintains that He is pleased, angry, and loves—