Nor can it be complete in that respect except through that other, which has no need of it.

Whatever wills something but cannot attain what it wills is powerless and depends on that through which its aim is achieved. Whatever depends on something beyond its power cannot be necessary in existence through itself. Nor can its perfection be attained through itself, but only through something that has no need of it.

These and other considerations may be used to establish this conclusion.

He said:

“As for the second principle, it is that everything brought into being has one who brings it into being. From these two principles, it follows that existence has an agent who brings it into being.

This category contains numerous proofs, as many as there are things brought into being. Thus, anyone who wishes to know Allah as He ought to be known must know the essences of things, so as to discern genuine origination in all existing things. For whoever does not know a thing’s true nature does not know the true nature of origination. This is indicated by His saying, Most High:

‘Have they not considered the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that Allah has created?’

[Al-A‘rāf: 185]

Likewise, the more one investigates the wisdom in an existing thing—by which I mean knowing the reason for which it was created and its intended purpose—the more fully one understands the argument from providence.

These two proofs, then, are the proofs furnished by revelation.

As for the fact that the verses drawing attention to the proofs leading to knowledge of the Maker’s existence