—and in other passages (1), such as His words, “On that Day no human or jinn will be asked about his sin” (al-Rahman 55:39). That is, He will not need to question them in order to ascertain the sin and its requital, for everything has already been written against them and preserved by the witnesses—the angels, their own limbs, the earth itself, and others besides.
Benefit: Pure negation is never, by itself, a perfection. Hence, whenever the Quran employs negation in a context of praise, it yields two benefits:
- The explicit removal of the deficiency that has been denied.
- The affirmation of the very opposite, its complete contrary.
This principle encompasses many matters, the greatest of which is that Allah praises Himself by negating numerous things that would contradict His perfection:
• He denies the existence of any partner in many passages, which necessitates that He alone possesses absolute perfection and that no one shares with Him in His Lordship, divinity, names, or attributes.
• He declares His own tasbih (glorification) in certain verses, and in others He reports the creatures’ tasbih of Him. Tasbih is to declare Allah free of every imperfection and free of any equal; this, in turn, indicates His perfection.
• He negates having a consort, a child, anyone who can recompense Him, or anyone who resembles Him. All of this points to His absolute perfection, His exclusive oneness, His complete self-sufficiency, and His unrestricted dominion.
• He denies of Himself drowsiness, sleep, and death, because His life and His sustaining governance are perfect.
• Likewise, He negates injustice in numerous places, which attests to the perfection of His justice and the vastness of His bounty.