that not speaking or giving guidance is a deficiency, and that one who speaks and guides is more perfect than one who neither speaks nor guides. The Lord has the greatest right to perfection.

And He, Most High, says:

“Say, ‘Can any of your partners guide to the truth?’ Say, ‘Allah guides to the truth.’ Is one who guides to the truth more worthy of being followed, or one who cannot find guidance unless he is guided? What is the matter with you? How do you judge?”

Thus, on the basis of what is firmly established in people’s innate nature, He, glorified be He, makes clear that one who guides to the truth is more worthy of being followed than one who cannot find guidance unless someone else guides him. It follows that the one who guides independently is the one who is perfect, unlike the one who finds guidance only through another. Since there must be a guide for anyone who cannot find guidance independently, that guide is the more perfect.

And He, Most High, says in another verse:

“Did they not see that it did not respond to them and had no power to harm or benefit them?”

This indicates that one who responds and has power to harm and benefit is more perfect than it.

And Abraham said to his father:

“O my father, why do you worship something that neither hears nor sees, nor benefits you in any way?”

This indicates that one who hears, sees, and is self-sufficient is more perfect, and that the one who is worshipped must possess these qualities. There are many similar passages in the Quran describing idols as lacking “attributes of perfection,” such as speech, action, life, and the like. These passages make clear that anything characterized by such deficiencies is deficient and flawed, like all other inanimate things, and that these attributes are absent only from something deficient and flawed.