Second: Moreover, every existent thing is capable of being described with these attributes and with their opposites. Allah is able to make lifeless matter alive, just as He turned the staff of Moses into a living creature that swallowed the ropes and staffs.

Third: Furthermore, what is incapable of bearing these attributes is more defective than what can bear them yet happens to be characterized by their opposites. An inanimate object, which is described with neither sight nor blindness, neither speech nor muteness, is more deficient than a living being that is blind and mute.

Hence, if one claims that the Creator cannot possibly possess such attributes, this assigns to Him a deficiency greater than describing Him as mute, blind, or deaf. Declaring Him incapable of them likens Him to inanimate objects that can accept neither attribute, a resemblance to lifeless things rather than to living beings. How, then, can someone who says this censure another for what he alleges is a resemblance to the living?

Fourth: Negating these attributes in itself is a deficiency, just as affirming them is perfection. Life, in and of itself—irrespective of who is described with it—is an attribute of perfection, and the same is true of knowledge, power, hearing, sight, and speech.