and every mental image that takes shape within the mind is dependent on that mind; it cannot subsist except through it. A ray likewise relies on the surface in which it is lodged; it stands only by means of it—and the same applies to every other parallel.

Now, those who have imitated the Christians yet outstripped them in unbelief say, “The very existence of the Creator is the existence of every created thing, and He inheres in the concrete realities of contingent beings.” They add, “He needs those realities for His own existence, while they need Him to remain in being.” In this way they make the Creator dependent on every creature and the creature dependent on the Creator, and they state this plainly—just as some Christians explicitly declare that the divinity is in need of the humanity and the humanity in need of the divinity.

Yet it is axiomatic that Allah is independent of everything else, and that everything else is needy of Him in every respect. He is al-Samad, free of all need, whereas everything stands in need of Him.

Whoever therefore alleges that He depends on any creature in any fashion whatsoever is a lying fabricator, a disbeliever—how much more so the one who claims that He depends on everything!

Moreover, the very analogy they advance for Him entails that He should be in need of something other than Himself while that other thing would be free of any need for Him—just like the analogy the Christians offer when they liken Him to a sun-beam together with its locus: the locus has no need for the beam, while the beam is dependent on its locus.

The logical outcome of that comparison is that God would be in need of man, and man