The possessor of perfection, then, is the Perfect Lord who bestows perfection upon others. Were the first alternative to hold, each of the two would have to impart to the other the attributes of perfection, which in turn would mean that each affects the other—so that each becomes the agent, knower, powerful one, and living one for the sake of the other. Such circular causation is impossible, as has already been demonstrated. Consequently, His being characterized by the attributes of perfection is necessary to Him, impossible to be removed from Him, and that is precisely what we sought to establish.

Fourthly, we reply to them: your claim that these two stand in the relation of privation and possession is nothing but a technical convention of your own making. In reality, anything devoid of life is called lifeless or dead. Allah, the Exalted, says:

“Those whom they call upon apart from Allah create nothing, but are themselves created; they are dead, not alive.” (Qur’an 16:20–21)

Thus He described the inert idols as dead. Land, too, is called ‘dead’, as the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said: “Whoever revives dead land, it becomes his.”