Likewise, when those who deny the attributes known through revelation, or through reason together with revelation—such as pleasure, anger, love, joy, and the like—say:

“These attributes can only be conceived of as belonging to a body,”

they are answered:

“These are no different from will, hearing, sight, and speech. Whatever consequence follows in one case follows equally in the other.”

Similarly, when the philosophers and others who deny the attributes say, “Affirming these attributes entails a multiplicity of meanings in Him, which entails His being a body or a composite,” they are answered:

“This is no different from your affirming that He exists, necessarily exists, and subsists by Himself; that He understands, is understood, and is intellect; that He is delightful, experiences delight, and is delight; that He loves, is loved, and is love; and so forth.”

If they say, “These all amount to a single meaning,” they are answered:

“If this is impossible, the distinction collapses. If it is possible, the same can be said of those attributes as of these. Thus, there is no distinction between one attribute and another.”

The affirmation of the attributes and the refutation of those who deny them have been discussed at length elsewhere.

The purpose here is to explain that Allah’s perfection is known through reason, and that its opposite is excluded from Him. Relying on this approach, rather than the other, in affirmation and negation is sound according to both reason and revelation, contrary to what these speculative theologians have said.

Most philosophers and speculative theologians agree that Allah’s perfection is established through reason. The philosophers call it completeness. This may be explained in several ways: