the heretics’ denial of His attributes “sanctification.” They knew that Muslims hold Him to be free of imperfection, so they seized upon this expression to deny the praiseworthy attributes that rightfully belong to Him, claiming that these constitute imperfection—just as he claimed that His being above the Throne is an imperfection or entails imperfection, alleging that it entails need and negates His oneness.

Thus the true state of affairs becomes clear to them: these things which Muslims agree with you in denying—even though you offer no rational proof for denying them—are stronger evidence against your position than against that of your opponents who affirm the attributes, even if an opponent is mistaken in some of what he says, provided that his error is less than yours. Although he has strayed from some of the guidance, he is closer to it than you are.

Since this is so, the first response to you is this: We have already shown that those who claim to deny of Allah the supposed imperfection involved in His being above the Throne themselves ascribe imperfection to Him, either explicitly or by implication. They explicitly state that reason does not rule out imperfection in Allah. They have denied it only on the basis of consensus, yet the Muslims have not agreed upon their position. They therefore have no proof for denying that He is above the Throne, even supposing that this involved the imperfection they allege