the Sustainer of all besides Him. He is al-Samad, the Master who has no hollow within Him and who neither divides, breaks into parts, nor is torn asunder. He is the One to whom every other living being turns. Thus, He is al-Samad in Himself, to whom everything turns; He subsists in Himself and sustains all things.

Since this is so, He cannot be likened in any respect to any body. Rather, his opponent may argue as follows—this being the nineteenth argument: denying His separateness from other things entails denying His self-subsistence, and denying His freedom from division entails denying His being al-Samad.

Thus, to say, “He is neither separate from anything else nor coincident with it, and He is characterized neither by combination nor by separation,” and similarly to deny of Him other opposing attributes, is akin to the heretics’ denial that He is either knowing or ignorant, either powerful or powerless. It entails denying that He is al-Qayyūm and al-Samad. These names provide far clearer support for the implications of the position of those who affirm His attributes than the scriptural proofs he cited provide for the position of those who deny them. This is why, when the more learned among those who deny His attributes heard