And He says:

“Nor is there anyone equal to Him.”
[Al-Ikhlās: 4]

And He says:

“Say, ‘No one can protect me from Allah.’”
[Al-Jinn: 22]

Allah Most High says:

“So whoever hopes to meet his Lord, let him do righteous deeds and associate no one in the worship of his Lord.”
[Al-Kahf: 110]

Allah Most High says:

“And your Lord wrongs no one.”
[Al-Kahf: 49]

If the word ahad (“one”) cannot be applied to anything in which attributes inhere, or even to any body in which accidents inhere because such bodies are divisible, then no existing being other than Allah—whether an angel, a human, a jinn, or an animal—would fall within the meaning of ahad. Indeed, no existing being could be designated by ahad in a negative statement. Thus, the statement “Nor is there anyone equal to Him” would deny equivalence to the Lord only of that which does not exist. Nothing among existing beings would be declared by this statement not to be Allah’s equal.

The same applies to His words, “And I associate no one with my Lord” [Al-Kahf: 38], and “and associate no one in the worship of his Lord.” For if ahad refers only to what is indivisible, while every created being and every body is divisible, then nothing created would fall within the meaning of ahad. The sense would therefore be: “I do not associate with Him that which has not come into existence,” and “Let him not associate with his Lord that which does not exist.”

If, however, what is intended is a universal negation, and every existing human and jinn falls within the meaning of ahad—one speaks of ahad (“one”) of two men, and, of a female, ihdā (“one”) of two women; a woman is called wāhidah (“one”), and a man wāhid (“one”) and wahīd (“alone”)—then it follows that, in the language in which the Quran was revealed, the terms wāhid and ahad apply to entities possessed of attributes; indeed, they apply to a body that bears