and patience entails cohesion, restraint, and consolidation, whereas its opposite, loss of composure, entails fragmentation. The same applies to taking heart and strengthening oneself, as in the expressions, “I strengthened him, and he took heart,” or “He does not take heart.” Taking heart is the opposite of being distraught: strengthening oneself and taking heart entail cohesion and strength, whereas losing composure entails fragmentation and weakness.

A person’s mastery and might have two aspects. The first is that he is self-sufficient, independent of others, and secure against them. Because of his self-sufficiency, he has no need of those upon whom others depend; because of his might, he does not fear them. The second is that others need him: he has prevailed over others and overcome them, and has strengthened others and protected them. People have thus turned to him—that is, sought him out and rallied around him. Such a one is al-Samad, the master. This can arise only from the perfection of his mastery and his quality of being al-Samad, which preclude fragmentation, disintegration, and weakness.

The word al-Samad indicates both that He has no hollow interior and that He is the Master. It is not as some people claim, that al-Samad, in