any ability to act apart from Him. Every affair is effortless for Him; He needs nothing whatsoever, and no one can manage the least thing without His leave.

This alone nullifies the worship of anything besides Allah—whether idols or anything of that sort. How could anyone devote himself to needy objects while forgetting the One in whose hand lies the dominion of all things? For this reason, when one of the scholars of the grave-veneration sect (qaburiyyah) said to an unlettered but monotheistic townsman, “You people claim that the saints can neither benefit nor harm,” the man replied, “Indeed, we say they can neither benefit nor harm.” The scholar shot back, “Does not Allah, Exalted is He, say, ‘Do not think of those who were killed in the path of Allah as dead; rather, they are alive with their Lord, being provided for’ (Āl ʿImrān 3:169)?”

The layman asked him, “Did Allah say yurzaqūn—‘being provided for’—or yarzuqūn—‘they provide’?” The scholar answered, “He said yurzaqūn, with the yāʾ in the passive voice.” The layman replied, “Then I shall ask the One who provides for them, not them.” Thus the scholar was silenced by the argument of the layman who was still upon his innate sound nature.

Allah says: “His command, when He wills a thing, is only to say to it, ‘Be!’—and it is” (Yā Sīn 36:82).

He gives life and causes death, creates and provides, bestows and withholds, and He will resurrect the dead after they have perished. All of that is easy for Allah; it costs Him nothing and brings Him no hardship. The creature, by contrast, must labor to accomplish anything, and often finds himself incapable. Nothing is difficult for Allah: “Your creation and your resurrection are only like that of a single soul” (Luqmān 31:28).

Allah, glorified be He, is independent of everything; He has no need whatsoever for the creation.