111]. And the Exalted says:

“Blessed is He Who sent down the Criterion to His servant, to be a warner to the worlds. {1} He to Whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, Who has never taken any offspring and has no partner in His dominion, and Who created everything and determined it precisely. {2}” [al-Furqān 1–2]

It has already been explained that a thing on its own cannot generate anything or constitute a complete cause. Rather, whatever generates something must have a partner and helper. The sun, for example, produces its rays only together with something facing it; a body produces sound only through another body touching and coming into contact with it. Likewise, offspring that are concrete entities are generated only from two progenitors. Thus, everything that generates something needs a counterpart to share in and assist with that generation.

By claiming that the world exists simultaneously with Him, these people have made Him dependent on it in that respect. Furthermore, if they make Him its generator, He must generate it from something else. Some of them say that this consists of the entities of contingent beings, which are independent of Him and established in nonexistence. Others among them affirm the five eternal entities, and there are similar views that affirm something independent of Him and sharing with Him. Some of them, however, deem this impossible—indeed, their more rigorous thinkers deem it impossible for those who stand in their place—since what is one in every respect cannot be a cause