eternal, and He has always been characterized by speech and will. This is an attribute of perfection, so He has always possessed perfection and always will, unlike the claim that He began to will and speak after not having done so.

If it is asked in this connection, “Is an individual instance of will, speech, or action a perfection or a deficiency?” the answer is:

It is a perfection at the time it occurs, but would be a deficiency if it occurred before then. For example, His calling to Moses was a perfection when Moses came; had He called to him before that, it would have been a deficiency, from which Allah is exalted. Moreover, individual temporal occurrences cannot be eternal, and where something cannot be eternal, its absence in eternity is not a deficiency. Rather, the deficiency being denied must consist in the absence of something whose existence is possible—more precisely, something whose existence is possible and whose existence is better than its absence.

Thus, the absence of something is not a deficiency unless these two conditions are met: its absence is possible, and its existence is better than its absence. If its absence is impossible—as with the absence of a partner or child—this is praiseworthy and an attribute of perfection. If its absence is possible, then its absence is preferable, as with the things He did not create: not creating them was more perfect than creating them, just as creating what He did create was more perfect than not creating it.

Accordingly, whatever temporal occurrences come to exist, whether within His essence or separate from Him, their existence at the time they exist is perfection, and their absence at the time they are absent is perfection. Their absence at the time they exist, or their existence at the time they are absent, would be a deficiency from which Allah—glorified and exalted is He—is far removed.

The distinction between temporal occurrences as a kind and their individual instances has thus become clear. If the kind had come into being within His essence after not having existed, it would follow that He became perfect after having been deficient, or deficient after having been perfect.