place. This helps establish that rational people agree that every contingent thing which admits of existence and nonexistence can only be temporally originated, coming into being after not having existed. This makes clear that everything other than the One whose existence is necessary in itself is brought into being after not having existed. This does not contradict His perpetual activity.

The point here is that temporal origination and contingency themselves indicate dependence on a cause. But it is mistaken to say that either of them makes created things dependent on the Creator. Rather, created things are intrinsically dependent on the Creator, and their need for a cause is inherent in them and requires no cause of its own. Not every property belonging to an entity requires a cause, for that would lead to an infinite regress of causes.

Such a regress is invalid by the agreement of the scholars. Rather, some properties are inseparable from the entities to which they belong: they cannot be detached from them and require no cause. The fact that everything other than Allah is always dependent on Him and in need of Him belongs to this category.

Dependence and need are thus intrinsic and inseparable from everything other than Allah, just as freedom from need and absolute self-sufficiency are inseparable from Allah’s essence. It is therefore impossible for Him—glory be to Him—to be in need, or to be anything other than independent of all else; and it is impossible for anything other than Him to be independent of Him