(ل)
He can possess neither attributes of perfection nor attributes of deficiency, and this is even more impossible. Thus, it is established that His possessing these attributes is possible and, indeed, necessary for Him—which is what was to be demonstrated. This is an excellent argument.

(The fifth argument:
It may be said: You have confined the opposition of privation and possession to that which can possess a positive attribute. If by possibility you mean actual possibility—that the attribute is known to exist in external reality—then this is invalid for two reasons:

First, it entails that inanimate things cannot be described as neither living nor dead, neither speaking nor silent—which is your position, although this is merely a terminological convention—and that you should not describe these inanimate things as dead or silent. Yet the Quran does describe them in this way. Allah Most High says:

“Those they invoke besides Allah create nothing, while they themselves are created.”

“They are dead, not alive, and they do not know when they will be resurrected.”

This concerns “idols,” which are inanimate things, yet they are described as dead. The Arabs divide the earth into hayawān (the living) and mawatān (the lifeless). The lexicographers say: “Mawatān, with the middle consonant vowelled, is the opposite of hayawān. It is said: ‘Buy the lifeless, and do not buy the living’—that is, buy land and houses, but do not buy slaves and beasts.”

They also say: “Mawāt is that which has no soul.” If it is said, “This is called mawāt only with reference to his expression ‘for life,’ meaning the revival of land,” the reply is: This implies that life is broader than the life of animate beings, and that an inanimate thing may be described as living when it is capable of cultivation and development. Muteness is the opposite of speech, and the Arabs say