—for that would contradict His necessary existence through Himself. Rather, He is absolutely Self-Sufficient, absolutely the Self-Sufficient Master. He is therefore separate from everything else, needing nothing else and depending on nothing else in any respect, just as nonexistence and origination are impossible for Him in any respect.

This separateness has two aspects. The first is intrinsic to the one described: it follows from His existence, while its necessity follows from His being necessarily existent and the Self-Sufficient Master. The second concerns His separation from anything else when it exists. This is the meaning of His being the Ascendant and the Most High. The Ascendant, with respect to separateness, corresponds to the First, with respect to precedence. Allah Most High says:

“He is the First and the Last, the Ascendant and the Intimate.” [al-Hadīd 3]

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“You are the First, and nothing is before You; You are the Ascendant, and nothing is above You.”

Thus, saying, “An existent must be either separate or spatially coincident,” is like saying, “No existent can be conceived except as either beginningless or originated,” whether these terms are understood intrinsically or relationally. If by ‘beginningless’ one means that which was not preceded by nonexistence, and by ‘originated’ that which was preceded by nonexistence, then ‘separate’ means that which subsists through itself, and ‘spatially coincident’ means that which does not subsist through itself. In both instances, this follows from its existence and the necessity of its existence. But if by ‘beginningless’ one means that which precedes something else, and by ‘originated’ that which something else precedes, then ‘separate’ means that which is separate from another and subsists through itself, whereas what is spatially coincident has its subsistence