Furthermore, even if mercy necessarily entailed such weakness in created beings, it would not follow that it necessarily entailed the same in Allah Most High. Likewise, our knowledge, power, hearing, sight and speech entail imperfections and needs from which Allah must be declared free. Similarly, our “existence” and “subsistence in ourselves” entail our need for a Creator who brings us into existence, whereas Allah’s existence is free of the needs inherent in ours. We, our attributes and our acts are bound up with dependence on another. Need is intrinsic to us, and we can never be free of it. He, glorified be He, is the Self-Sufficient; His freedom from need is intrinsic to Him and can never cease. In Himself, He is Ever-Living, All-Sustaining and necessarily existent, whereas in ourselves we are needy and dependent.
Thus, although our essence, attributes and acts, and the perfections we possess—such as knowledge, power and the like—are bound up with need, having come into existence and contingency, this does not require denying Allah an essence, attributes or acts, or denying Him power and knowledge, merely because these things are inseparable from need in us. The same applies to “mercy” and other attributes: even supposing that they are inseparable from need and weakness in us, it does not follow that they must be inseparable from these in Allah.
Furthermore, we know self-evidently that if we suppose two beings, one of whom shows mercy to another, bringing him benefit and warding off harm from him, while the other is indifferent to both and has nothing within him that calls for bringing benefit or warding off harm, then the former is more perfect.