established for an effect derives from its cause, and the cause has a greater right to it than the effect.” These are rational inferences and illustrative analogies—and to Allah belongs the highest example—used throughout discussions of divine matters. Similar reasoning occurs in the Quran and Sunnah, as we have explained elsewhere.

Our statement in this argument, “Every predicate established for existence as such,” excludes predicates that involve nonexistence, such as eating and drinking. These require the one who eats and drinks to be hollow, so that food, which consists of physical bodies, can occupy an empty space—particularly when other matter has already been lost through bodily breakdown and the food replaces what has been lost. This thus entails something leaving the body, which constitutes a deficiency in it and is a privative attribute. It also entails the presence of parts within it, which requires an empty space; this too constitutes a deficiency in it and is a privative attribute. And this