is vain. This resembles the condition of the polytheists who worshipped something other than Allah, or worshipped Allah without His command or His prescribed law.

If it is said, “What is vain is the intention and action themselves, not the object intended,” I reply: Rather, the object itself is vain in respect of the purpose for which it is intended, as stated in the hadith:

“I bear witness that every object of worship, from Your Throne to the depths of Your earth, is vain except Your noble Face.”

The explanation is this: in its original sense, what is vain is what is nonexistent, and what is nonexistent is what is negated. A thing may thus be negated because it does not exist at all, as in His saying, Most High:

“He neither begets nor is born.”

“And there is none comparable to Him.”

And:

“There is nothing like Him.”

And His saying:

“Allah has not taken any son, nor has there ever been any god alongside Him.”

And His saying:

“There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.”

And the Prophet’s saying, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“There is no prophet after me.”

A thing may also be negated because it lacks its benefit, its intended purpose, and the distinctive characteristic that makes it what it is, as we have explained. For whatever has no benefit is vain, and what is vain is nonexistent. An example is the Prophet’s saying, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, when he was asked about soothsayers:

“They are of no account.”

Another example is His saying—exalted is He, exalted is He:

“O People of the Scripture, you have no ground to stand upon until you uphold the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord.”

A thing may also be negated because it lacks perfection and completeness, either absolutely or in comparison with something else, as in the Prophet’s saying, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“The needy person is not the one who goes around begging and is turned away with a morsel or two, or a date or two. Rather, the needy person is the one who does not have sufficient means to sustain himself