in His nobility, the Great One who is perfect in His greatness, the Wise One who is perfect in His wisdom, the Self-Sufficient who is perfect in His self-sufficiency, the Compeller who is perfect in His might, the All-Knowing who is perfect in His knowledge, and the Forbearing who is perfect in His forbearance. He is perfect in every aspect of nobility and mastery. He is Allah, Mighty and Majestic. This description befits Him alone. He has no equal, and there is nothing like Him. Glory be to Him, the One, the All-Subduing.”

This explanation is reliably transmitted from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Sālih, from Muʿāwiyah ibn Sālih, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Talhah al-Wālibī. It is said, however, that he did not hear the commentary directly from Ibn ʿAbbās. Nevertheless, statements of this kind are reliably transmitted from the early generations. It is reported that Saʿīd ibn Jubayr said: “Al-Samad is the One who is perfect in His attributes and acts.”

It is also reliably transmitted that Abū Wāʾil Shaqīq ibn Salamah said: “Al-Samad is the Master whose mastery has reached its utmost perfection.” These statements and others like them do not contradict what many of the early generations—including Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, Mujāhid, al-Hasan, al-Suddī, al-Dahhāk, and others—said: that al-Samad is the One who has no interior cavity. This is transmitted from Ibn Masʿūd, and from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Buraydah on the authority of his father, either as a Companion’s statement or as a report traced back to the Prophet. Both explanations are true, as has been discussed at length elsewhere.

In ordinary language, the term “accidents” may be understood to refer to ailments and the like that befall a person. Likewise, the terms “temporal events and newly introduced things” may be understood to refer to what a person introduces