That is because He is powerful over all things, while everything is dependent upon Him.

This is an eternal attribute: one must not imagine that He only acquired power after He created and brought the creatures into being. Rather, power belongs to Him from pre-eternity; the appearance of creation is simply an effect that flows from His being powerful over all things.

Allah Himself has described His power as encompassing everything—things that exist and things yet to exist—without limiting it to any particular domain. Nothing can disable Him, and it is impermissible to qualify His omnipotence by saying, “He is able over such-and-such,” or even, “He is able over whatever He wills,” for that last expression is mentioned only in one specific matter: the gathering of the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth, as in His words, “Among His signs is that He created the heavens and the earth and the creatures He dispersed within them; He is fully able to gather them whenever He wills” (Ash-Shūrā 42:29). That verse speaks of a single, definite case.

Nothing can dispense with Allah’s aid—neither the angels, nor the heavens and the earth, nor the jinn or humankind, nor even the inanimate mountains and the seas. Every single thing stands in need of Him: “O people, you are the ones in need of Allah, whereas Allah is the Self-Sufficient, the Praiseworthy” (Fāṭir 35:15).

Thus everything is needy of Him—saints included, as well as the very heavens themselves. Whoever claims that the saints possess powers beyond those of ordinary humans, that they manage the universe, or that they can bring benefit or harm apart from Allah, is merely repeating the words of the unbelievers and the polytheists. Neither the saints, nor the messengers, nor the angels have any independence from Allah, nor