polytheists seeks your protection, grant him protection.” It also occurs in a possessive construction, as in His words:
“Then send one of you.”
“We gave one of them two gardens.”
As for the name al-Samad (the Self-Sufficient One upon whom all depend), linguists have used it of created beings, as noted earlier. Thus, He did not say, “Allah is a samad,” but rather:
“Allah is al-Samad.”
He thereby made clear that He alone, to the exclusion of all others, deserves to be al-Samad, for He is entitled to this attribute in its fullest perfection. Although a created being may be samad in certain respects, it does not truly possess this attribute: it is susceptible to fragmentation and division, and it also needs others. Everything besides Allah needs Him in every respect. None is sought by everything while himself needing nothing except Allah, Blessed and Exalted.
Everything created is capable of division, fragmentation, partition, and separation of its parts. Allah, glorified is He, is al-Samad, to whom none of these things can apply. Rather, this attribute in its reality and perfection belongs necessarily and inseparably to Him alone. He cannot lack it in any respect, just as His oneness cannot admit of a second in any respect. He is One: nothing resembles Him in any way, as He says at the end of the surah:
“And there is none comparable to Him.”
Here He uses ahad in a negative statement: nothing whatsoever is comparable to Him in any respect, because He is One.
“A man said to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), ‘You are our master.’ He replied: