and likewise His anger, for anger is the boiling of the blood in the heart in pursuit of vengeance. The same applies to their denial of His laughter and wonder, for laughter is a lightness of spirit arising when something pleasing occurs or something harmful is warded off, while wonder consists in regarding its object as momentous.

Those who deny prophethood say:

“Human beings are not of such standing that a messenger should be sent to them, just as those at the margins of society are not worthy of a sovereign sending an envoy to them.”

The polytheists say:

“The Lord’s greatness and majesty require that He be approached only through an intermediary and a veil. To approach Him directly, without intercessors and intermediaries, therefore detracts from His exalted majesty.”

Yet those who advance this premise neither accept its implications nor apply it consistently. If they were asked:

“Which is more perfect: an essence endowed with every form of sensory perception, including smell, taste, and touch, or an essence endowed with none of them?”

they would say:

“The former is more perfect,”

yet they do not ascribe them all to the Creator.

In sum, perfection and imperfection are relative matters and relational concepts. An attribute may be a perfection for one essence and an imperfection for another. Eating, drinking, and sexual relations, for example, are perfections for created beings but imperfections for the Creator. Likewise, magnifying and exalting oneself and praising oneself are perfections for the Creator but imperfections for created beings,