external to him. For when he strikes with a stone, the act of throwing is his, but the stone’s reaching its destination results both from this cause and from another cause involving the stone and the air.

Likewise, the satisfaction of hunger and thirst results from his eating and drinking, which are his own actions, together with the nourishing power in food and drink and his body’s capacity to receive that nourishment. Allah is the Creator of all of this.

This shows that nothing among created things can independently produce any effect whatsoever. Although the heart, which is the ruler of the body, is the source of the volitions that move the limbs, it cannot produce movement independently, without the participation of the limbs and their powers, as explained above.

Likewise, those in authority who administer cities and armies cannot independently produce an effect without someone to assist them. Otherwise, their speech and actions are merely accidents inhering in them and do not extend beyond them. Every effect produced outside them depends upon other causes external to the locus of their power and action.

All of this demonstrates the inability of any created being to produce any effect independently. Thus, no created thing can ever be a lord over any created thing—a lord over any created thing with absolute lordship. For the lord of a thing is the one who sustains and governs it absolutely, in every respect. This belongs to none but Allah, the Lord of all worlds.

For this reason, our religious law forbids using the designation “lord” in relation to morally accountable beings, as the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“None of you should say, ‘Give your lord something to drink; give your lord something to eat.’”