and thus He had no need of anyone else, nothing lay outside His will, and no one did anything He did not will. This is the view of the Qadariyyah in general, and it represents the utmost perfection and might. As for contingency, it would follow if His existence depended on another’s joy. As for temporal origination, the argument rests on attributes subsisting in Him, from which His temporal origination is inferred. It has been explained elsewhere that the Jahmiyyah’s approach to denying the attributes rests entirely on invalid reasoning by analogy; a detailed explanation is given elsewhere.

Whoever reflects on the texts of the Quran and Sunnah will find them supremely precise and sound. They declare Allah free of every imperfection and affirm every perfection for Him. He, exalted is He, has no perfection awaiting attainment such that He would be deficient before attaining it. Rather, it is part of His perfection that He performs an act after not having performed it. Since He is perfect in His essence, attributes, and actions, His perfection does not depend on another, nor does He need anyone besides Himself. Rather, He is the Self-Sufficient, and we are the needy. Allah, exalted is He, says:

“Allah has certainly heard the words of those who said, ‘Allah is poor, while we are rich.’ We shall record what they said and their killing of the prophets without right.”

In His love, pleasure, abhorrence, wrath, joy, anger, patience, pardon, and compassion, He, glorified be He, possesses a perfection that creatures cannot comprehend—a perfection surpassing every perfection, for every perfection is derived from His. His is the beautiful praise that His servants cannot adequately recount; He is only as He has praised Himself. His is the self-sufficiency by which He needs none besides Himself:

“There is no one in the heavens and earth but will come to the Most Merciful as a servant.”

“He has fully accounted for them and counted them precisely.”

“And each of them will come to Him on the Day of Resurrection alone.”