Section

As for one person’s statement:

“If there were anything in His dominion that He did not will, that would be an imperfection,”

and another’s statement:

“If He decreed and punished, that would be injustice, and injustice is an imperfection,”

the reply is as follows:

The first statement is clear. If it were supposed that there existed within His dominion something He did not will, over which He had no power, and which He neither created nor brought into being, that would constitute an imperfection in several respects.

First, for anything to bring things into being independently of Him would constitute an imperfection even if it were supposed to be outside His dominion. How much more so within His dominion? For we know that, if we posit two beings—one upon whom everything depends, while he depends on nothing, and another upon whom some things depend, while others have no need of him—the first would be more perfect. Thus, the mere fact that anything should fall outside His power and creative activity would constitute an imperfection.

These are proofs of divine oneness, for sharing entails an imperfection in each of the two partners, and absolute perfection lies only in oneness. We know that one who has power in his own right is more perfect than one who needs a helper; one who accomplishes everything by himself is more perfect than one who has a partner and helper in accomplishing some of it; and one upon whom everything depends is more perfect than one of whom some things have no need.