All these, then, are attributes of perfection that belong to Him alone. How could something that belongs to Him alone constitute perfection in anyone else, when no one else possesses it? Whoever claims it is a fabricator who contests the exclusive prerogatives of Lordship. As established in an authentic hadith, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Allah Most High says: ‘Majesty is My lower garment, and supreme greatness is My cloak. Whoever contests either of them with Me, I shall punish him.’”

In short, no one else has any share in the perfection exclusive to Lordship. This affirms that He possesses a perfection in which no one else has any share. Such perfection cannot belong to anyone else; claiming it therefore amounts to contesting His Lordship and fabricating a lie against Allah. It is well known that prophethood is a perfection in a prophet. Yet when impostors—such as Musaylimah and his like—claim it, this constitutes a deficiency in them, not because prophethood is a deficiency, but because claiming it without possessing it is itself the deficiency. Likewise, anyone who claims knowledge, power, or righteousness without possessing them is blameworthy and detestable.

This entails that the Lord Most High possesses perfection that cannot belong to a created being. This does not contradict the principle that whatever constitutes perfection for an existent being simply insofar as it exists is something of which the Creator is all the more deserving. Rather, it means that when a created being is described with a perfection in the manner proper to it, and the Creator is described with that perfection in the manner proper to Him, what belongs to the created being neither equals nor even approaches what belongs to the Creator.

This is true: the Lord Most High deserves perfection and possesses it uniquely, in a manner in which nothing resembles Him. He has neither peer nor equal, whether the perfection is one of which nothing belongs to created beings—such as Lordship over His servants, absolute self-sufficiency, and the like—or one of which a kind is found in created beings;