There is nothing in existence that is not either a jawhar (substance) or an ʿaraḍ (accident). For anything we examine is found to be either self-subsistent, needing nothing else for its existence—that is the jawhar—or dependent for its existence on something outside itself, having no independent subsistence—and that is the ʿaraḍ. A third category beyond these two is impossible. The more excellent of the two is that which stands by its own essence, independent in its existence of anything else, and that is the jawhar.

Now, because the Creator—sanctified are His Names—is the noblest of all existents, being the cause of everything besides Him, it follows that the highest and most exalted of realities is the jawhar. Hence we say that He is a jawhar, though unlike created substances, just as we say that He is a “thing,” though unlike created things; otherwise His being would depend on something else and He would stand in need of another for His existence—and it is abhorrent to ascribe such a notion to Allah, exalted is He. So I said