In order to reveal His unity in the clearest way, He concealed His perfection and instituted a way of imperfection in order to create and govern imperfect creatures. This is the Residue. For even if God’s creatures could attain the ultimate perfection, they still could not attain His perfection, for since they are created beings, they could never attain the level of the Creator. Indeed, inasmuch as this Residue came into being through the concealment of perfection, many deficiencies and imperfections are rooted in it.
The truth is that these deficiencies are intended to make it possible for His creatures to exist on different, graded levels and to draw closer to perfection gradually, level by level. This would not be possible if there were no bounds and limits, for the Unlimited contains no levels, and accordingly He is perfect from the very outset.