Qiyas al-awla (analogical reasoning by priority) regarding the attributes of Allah and what implies deficiency
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
By qiyas al-awla, and this is one of the most difficult matters. In fact, his statement, “And Allah is more worthy of holding fast to them,” contradicts the rule he mentioned on Friday.
Answer:
No, qiyas al-awla is that any perfection established for a created being that does not imply a deficiency—note this, it does not imply a deficiency—the Creator is more worthy of it. This is because Allah has informed us that He, Glorified and Exalted is He, is the Perfect One and the Self-Sufficient One. So any perfection established for a created being that does not imply a deficiency, the Creator, Glorified and Exalted is He, is more worthy of it. Yes, and this does not conflict with waiting for the texts, because the texts indicate this: that Allah is perfect in absolute perfection. This implies a deficiency: the one who has a child is more perfect than the one who does not have a child, but this implies a deficiency, which is that he is in need of a child. The person who sleeps is more perfect than the person who does not sleep, because sleep is health and not sleeping is illness. So sleep is like a perfection for the created being, but it is a deficiency for the Creator, Glorified and Exalted is He.
By qiyas al-awla, and this is one of the most difficult matters. In fact, his statement, “And Allah is more worthy of holding fast to them,” contradicts the rule he mentioned on Friday.
Answer:
No, qiyas al-awla is that any perfection established for a created being that does not imply a deficiency—note this, it does not imply a deficiency—the Creator is more worthy of it. This is because Allah has informed us that He, Glorified and Exalted is He, is the Perfect One and the Self-Sufficient One. So any perfection established for a created being that does not imply a deficiency, the Creator, Glorified and Exalted is He, is more worthy of it. Yes, and this does not conflict with waiting for the texts, because the texts indicate this: that Allah is perfect in absolute perfection. This implies a deficiency: the one who has a child is more perfect than the one who does not have a child, but this implies a deficiency, which is that he is in need of a child. The person who sleeps is more perfect than the person who does not sleep, because sleep is health and not sleeping is illness. So sleep is like a perfection for the created being, but it is a deficiency for the Creator, Glorified and Exalted is He.
Source
شرح لمعة الاعتقاد [ صالح الفوزان ]، المقدمة — islamhouse.com (1:02:48)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.