Section: The servant—and every creature—is poor and in need of Allah

Once it is understood that the servant, indeed every created being, stands in utter need of Allah and of no one else, it follows that he is neither self-sufficient in his own right nor made independent by anything apart from his Lord, for that “other” is itself needy and dependent upon Allah. It is related from Abū Yazīd (may Allah have mercy on him) that he said, “A creature’s plea for help from another creature is like a drowning man seeking rescue from another drowning man.” Shaykh Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Qurashī—Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm, an Andalusian Ṣūfī, one of the gnostics famed for miracles and spiritual states, whose sayings on the etiquette of dealings and the paths of spiritual discipline were gathered by some disciples in the book al-Fuṣūl; he lived for a time in Egypt, then settled in Jerusalem and died there in 995 AH at the age of fifty-five—remarked, “A creature’s plea for help from another creature is like a prisoner seeking aid from another prisoner.” This is only an approximation; in truth it resembles non-existence appealing to non-existence. Unless the True One creates within the one called upon strength and power, he possesses nothing of his own.

The Exalted says, “Who is there that can intercede with Him except by His permission?” [Al-Baqarah 2:255]; and He says, “They do not intercede except for those with whom He is pleased” [Al-Anbiyāʾ 21:28]; and He says, “They could never harm anyone with it except by Allah’s permission” [Al-Baqarah 2:102].