because those waste products are harmful to the body and work against it, whereas there is no harm in Paradise. As for eating and drinking, they serve only to attain completeness after deficiency, and this is an inseparable characteristic of created beings. This is discussed at length elsewhere. Thus Allah, glorified be He, says:

“The Messiah, son of Mary, was no more than a messenger; messengers had passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They both ate food.” [al-Mā’idah 75]

Eating food is therefore incompatible with being al-Samad (the Self-Sufficient) and entails poverty and need, which are incompatible with lordship in numerous respects. The same applies to all other predicates that apply to some existent beings but from which the Lord is exalted. Drowsiness and sleep, for example, are predicates involving something privative, not predicates of existence as such. Thus, although the people of Paradise exist, they do not sleep, for sleep is the brother of death and involves something privative. The same applies to incapacity and ignorance