and speech, as well as action and the like. Any quality that is intrinsically perfect befits Him far more than it does created beings; therefore, were the creature to possess it while He did not, the creature would be more perfect than He.

[Comparison between those who deny both opposites with respect to Allah and those who describe Him by sheer negation]

Know that the thoroughgoing Jahmiyyah—such as the Qaramita and those akin to them—deny that the Exalted can be qualified by either member of a pair of opposites. They go so far as to say, “He is neither existent nor non-existent, neither living nor non-living.” It is self-evident to reason that being stripped of both opposites is impossible, just as combining them is impossible.

Others contented themselves with pure negation, saying, “He is not living, not hearing, and not seeing.” From one perspective these people are more unbelieving than the former group, while from another perspective the former are more unbelieving than they. When it is said to this latter group, “Such negation necessarily attributes to Him the opposite qualities—death, deafness, and muteness,” they