He—glory be to Him—then explained that He is the Originator of the heavens and the earth. Origination means creating something without a prior model, unlike generation, which requires a correspondence between the source and its offspring and their being of the same kind.

Origination means creating something by the Creator’s will and power, with the Creator acting alone, without any partner. Generation, by contrast, occurs only through a part of the progenitor, without the exercise of its will or power, and only when another source joins with it.

[Ibn Taymiyyah’s Comment]

Allah Most High says:

“How could He have offspring when He has no wife? He created all things, and He has knowledge of all things.”

He thus explained the impossibility of His having offspring without a wife by saying, “when He has no wife.” For generation requires two sources; nothing in existence can, on its own, generate something. Rather, Allah Most High has created pairs of everything, while He—glory be to Him—is the One who has no mate.

This has been discussed at length elsewhere, where the falsity of the philosophers’ claim, “Only one can proceed from one,” has been explained. They went so far as to say: “Initially, only the intellect proceeded from the Necessary Being; then, through the mediation of the intellect, an intellect, a soul, and a celestial sphere proceeded.”