necessarily entails both these and those, and those meanings necessarily entail the existence of these attributes,” his statement would have been correct, for mutual entailment obtains from all three directions.

The Eleventh Aspect (1):

His statement, “Thus they made Him dependent and deficient in Himself, yet perfect through something other than Himself,” is false. For He is the very essence characterized by these attributes. There is therefore nothing here whose need for these attributes could be posited (2 except an essence divested of them. Yet such an essence has no existence in external reality, for no essence divested of these attributes exists externally 2) (2) [such that it might be described as either dependent or self-sufficient. Allah’s essence necessarily entails these attributes] (3).

The attributes entailed (4) by the essence of the One described, without which He cannot be, are not something apart from which He has any reality, such that it could be said that He (5) is dependent and deficient. Rather, the reality of the matter is that an essence divested of the attributes of perfection (6 is deficient without them and dependent upon the attributes of perfection—and this is true 6) (6). Yet that divested essence is not Allah; indeed, it has no reality in external existence. Moreover, they do not apply the term “other” to the attributes.

The Twelfth Aspect (7):

The assertion, “The Christians disbelieved by saying, ‘The eternal beings are three,’ whereas the Asharīs affirm nine eternal beings,” is false. For (8) Allah did not declare the Christians unbelievers for saying, “The eternal beings are three.” Rather, He, Most High, said: