(131, 132) “To Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth. We have enjoined those who were given the Scripture before you—and you as well—to fear Allah. But if you disbelieve, then to Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth. Allah is Self-Sufficient, Praiseworthy. To Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth, and Allah suffices as Guardian.”
The Most High tells us of the universal extent of His immense and boundless dominion, which necessarily entails His governance of all things in every manner and His direction of them through His decree and His Law. His governance through His Law includes His enjoining the former and latter generations—the recipients of the earlier and later Scriptures—to fear Him. This entails commandments and prohibitions, the prescription of rulings, the rewarding of those who uphold this injunction, and the punishment with a painful torment of those who neglect and squander it.
Thus He says, “But if you disbelieve”—by abandoning fear of Allah and associating with Him that for which He has sent down no authority—then you harm none but yourselves. You cannot harm Allah in the least or diminish His dominion. He has servants who are better, greater, and more numerous than you, obedient to Him and submissive to His command. He therefore follows this with the words: “But if you disbelieve, then to Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth. Allah is Self-Sufficient, Praiseworthy.”
His complete generosity and all-embracing beneficence ⦗208⦘ flow from the treasuries of His mercy, which are neither diminished by spending nor depleted by any expenditure, but pour forth ceaselessly by night and day. If all the inhabitants of the heavens and earth, from the first to the last, were to gather and each [one] of them asked Him for everything his aspirations could reach, His dominion would not be diminished in the slightest. That is because He is munificent, self-sufficient, and glorious. His giving is a word, and His punishment is a word. Whenever He wills a thing, His command is only to say to it, “Be,” and it is.
Part of His perfect self-sufficiency is that all His attributes are perfect. Were there any deficiency in Him in any respect, it would entail a need for the corresponding perfection. Rather, every attribute of perfection belongs to Him, and every such attribute is perfect in Him. Part of His perfect self-sufficiency is that He has taken neither a consort nor a child, and He has no partner in His dominion, no supporter, and no assistant in any aspect of governing His kingdom.
Another aspect of His perfect self-sufficiency is that all beings in the upper and lower realms depend upon Him in all their conditions and affairs and ask Him for all their needs, great and small. The Most High fulfills those needs and requests, enriches them and grants them contentment, bestows His gracious kindness upon them, and guides them.
As for “the Praiseworthy,” it is one of Allah Most High’s sublime names. It indicates that [He] alone deserves every form of praise, love, laudation, and honor because of His praiseworthy attributes—the attributes of beauty and majesty—and because of the abundant blessings He has bestowed upon His creation. He is therefore praised in every circumstance.
How splendidly these two noble names—“the Self-Sufficient, the Praiseworthy”—are paired! He is Self-Sufficient and Praiseworthy: His self-sufficiency is perfect, His praiseworthiness is perfect, and the conjunction of the two is perfect.
He then repeats that His dominion encompasses everything in the heavens and on earth and that He is Guardian over all things. That is, He has full knowledge and directs the affairs of all things with wisdom. This is required for perfect guardianship, for guardianship necessarily entails knowledge of everything under one’s care, the strength and ability to carry out and administer its affairs, and administration founded upon wisdom and welfare. Any lack in these respects constitutes a deficiency in the guardian, whereas Allah Most High is exalted above every deficiency.