marriage is likened to ownership of slaves, as ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said:

“Marriage is bondage, so let each of you consider to whom he gives his cherished female relative in bondage.”

Zayd ibn Thābit said:

“The husband is a master in Allah’s Book.”

He then recited His words, Most High:

“And they found her master at the door.”

If, under this incomplete ownership, the one owned cannot be a partner of the owner, then what of true, complete ownership of everything—the ownership of the One who owns all entities and attributes, all benefits and actions? Nothing whatsoever lies outside His ownership; no one else has any independent ownership, shares in His ownership, or assists Him in any way. How, then, could it be permissible to make something He owns His partner in any respect?

There are two kinds of associating partners with Allah: the first concerns His lordship, and the second concerns His exclusive right to worship.

The first consists in affirming an independent agent other than Allah. This includes treating a living creature as independently bringing about its own actions, or treating the stars, natural bodies, intellects, souls, angels, or anything else as independently bringing anything into being. In reality, their position leaves events without an agent. Everything they attribute to the action of these agents is something that comes into being and requires an originator through whom it is brought into being; it is also something contingent that necessarily requires a necessary being through whom