The fourth is what al-Dahhāk narrated from Ibn ‘Abbās:

“A delegation from Najrān came to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with seven bishops from Banū al-Hārith ibn Ka‘b, among them al-Sayyid and al-‘Āqib. They said to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ‘Describe your Lord to us. What is He made of?’ The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, replied, ‘My Lord is not made of anything, and He is distinct from all things.’ Then Allah Most High revealed: ‘Say: He is Allah, One.’”

These people were asking whether He belonged to any kind of created being and whether He was made from some substance. Allah Most High therefore explained that He is One, belonging to no kind of created being, and that He is al-Samad, not made from any substance. Rather, He is al-Samad; He neither begets nor is begotten.

If He denies that He was begotten from a parent’s substance, then there is all the more reason to deny that He is made from any other substance. For the substance of one born from material like his own is more perfect than that of one created from a different material—as Adam was created from clay. The substance from which his children were created is therefore superior to the substance from which he himself was created. This is why his creation was more wondrous.

If, then, the Lord is declared free of originating from the higher substance, He is all the more emphatically declared free of originating from the lower substance. Likewise, if He is far above having anyone equal to Him, then He is all the more certainly above having anyone superior to Him.

This further demonstrates that this surah encompasses every form of declaring Allah free of imperfection and praising Him, through both negation and affirmation. This is why it is equivalent to one-third of the Quran. His being al-Samad affirms perfection incompatible with any deficiency, while His oneness affirms that He alone possesses that perfection,