Surah Fātir

In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.

[Surah Fātir (35): verse 15]
“O mankind, you are in need of Allah, whereas Allah is the Self-Sufficient, the Praiseworthy.” (15)

In this verse, Allah, glorified be He, explains that His servants’ need for Him is intrinsic to them and inseparable from them, just as His self-sufficiency and praiseworthiness are intrinsic to Him. His self-sufficiency and praiseworthiness belong to Him intrinsically, not because something brought them about. Likewise, the need of everything besides Him for Him is intrinsic, not brought about by something else. This need is therefore not attributable to origination or contingency; rather, it is intrinsic to the needy being. The servant’s need for his Lord is intrinsic to him, not the result of a cause that produced that need. Likewise, the Lord’s self-sufficiency, glorified be He, is intrinsic to Him, not brought about by anything else.

As Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said:

“Need is an attribute ever inherent in me,
Just as self-sufficiency is ever intrinsic to Him.”

Created beings are intrinsically poor and dependent upon their Lord, not because of some cause. Everything cited and established as a cause of their poverty and need is, in fact, evidence of that poverty and need, not its cause. For what is intrinsic is not attributable to a cause. The intrinsically needy depends upon the One who is intrinsically Self-Sufficient. Thus, whatever is cited of contingency, origination, and dependence constitutes evidence of need, not causes of it.

For this reason, the correct position concerning the cause of the world’s need for the Lord, glorified be He, differs from