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As for “the polytheists’ claim” that His greatness and majesty require that He be approached only through an intermediary and a barrier, and that approaching Him without these detracts from His exalted dignity, this is false on several grounds.

One is that someone who can be approached only through intermediaries and a barrier is either able to hear his soldiers’ words and meet their needs without those intermediaries and that barrier, or he is not. If he is not able, this is a deficiency. Allah Most High, however, is characterized by perfection. He must therefore hear His servants’ words without intermediaries, answer their supplications, and show them kindness without any need for a barrier. If a king can conduct his affairs without a barrier and dispenses with it out of kindness and mercy, that is an attribute of perfection.

Furthermore, the claim that this detracts from His dignity applies only to someone whom others can harm and who depends on them for his own benefit. Given His perfect power, His complete independence of them, and His immunity to any harm they might cause Him, their drawing near to Him does not detract from His dignity. Indeed, if there are two people, one of whom brings the weak close to him out of kindness toward them and has no fear of them, while the other does not do so, whether out of fear, arrogance, or some other reason, the first is more perfect than the second.