and mislead ignorant people by obscuring matters for them.”

So far as I know, Muslims agree that Allah is exalted above and free from both of these meanings. For Allah, glorified be He, is One, al-Samad (the Self-Sufficient). He is not subject to division, partition, or separation in the sense that one part of Him separates from another, as happens when a body is divided and cut into pieces—for example, when continuous bodies such as bread, meat, cloth, and the like are divided. Nor does any part separate from Him as waste is discharged from an animal.

He is free from these things, meaning that they neither occur nor are possible with respect to Him. His essence therefore admits neither separation nor partition. Indeed, He is not hollow, as the Companions and the Successors explained al-Samad to mean the One who has no cavity, as will be clarified later. Most people understand nothing by the denial of partition and division