“Weariness means exhaustion and fatigue.”

Likewise, He says:

“Vision does not encompass Him.”

According to the early generations and the majority, “encompassing” here means comprehending something in its entirety. Some have said that it means seeing, but this is a weak interpretation, because denying that He can be seen entails no praise: what does not exist cannot be seen either. Any description common to both existence and nonexistence entails no positive attribute and therefore offers no praise, since it is pure negation. By contrast, saying that He cannot be encompassed indicates the greatness of the Lord—majestic is His glory. Although His servants see Him, their vision does not encompass Him, just as, although they know Him, their knowledge does not encompass Him. Likewise, although they praise and extol Him, their praise cannot encompass Him. Rather, He is as He has praised His own holy Self.

For this reason, the best and most knowledgeable of creation said:

“I cannot enumerate Your praises; You are as You have praised Yourself.”

These matters are discussed at length elsewhere. The purpose here is to explain what it means for the surah “Say: He is Allah, the One” to equal one-third of the Quran, and to demonstrate that the first view is correct.

The third argument demonstrating the invalidity of the second view is as follows:

When someone speaks of “knowledge of His acts,” if he means knowledge of His signs that point to Him, this forms part of complete knowledge of Him. Yet he has left unmentioned knowledge of His promises and warnings and the accounts of believing and disbelieving nations—which constitute the second category of the Quran’s meanings—just as he has left unmentioned His commands and prohibitions. If, however, he includes these among the effects of His actions, then it is well known that the purpose of knowing the promises, warnings, and accounts is belief in the Last Day and the recompense of deeds