Thus, their entire discourse revolves around this foundation. Undoubtedly, by denying these two things, they declared Allah free of many things from which He must be declared free. Whatever further negation of His attributes they introduced was intended only to affirm His transcendence and holiness, although in this they were misguided and led others astray. Sūrat al-Ikhlās fully encompasses the truth in this regard, for Allah says:

“Say: He is Allah, the One. {1} Allah, the Eternal Refuge. {2}” [al-Ikhlās 1-2]

Allah has mentioned these two names, al-Ahad (the One) and al-Samad (the Eternal Refuge), only in this surah. They exclude from Allah everything from which He is free: likeness and resemblance to creation, composition, divisibility, and corporeality. His name al-Ahad rules out any equal or counterpart, as discussed earlier when examining the scriptural evidence for this. We explained that al-Ahad, as one of Allah’s names, rules out His having any equal in any respect: He is One in everything that belongs to Him.

His name al-Samad rules out separation, division, fragmentation, and the composition and the like consequent upon these. For the name al-Samad denotes cohesion, as does each of the two meanings encompassed by this name.