The greatest of these perfections is Self-Existence or Being. Only God is the Necessarily Existent. Everything else was previously non-existent and was brought into existence by God and is forever dependent on the Divine Power for its continued existence. No other existence is comparable to God’s because His Existence is not characterized by beginning, end, dependency, or change.
He is the One and the Single, possessing the attribute of Oneness. He is not composed of parts that form a whole nor does He have any partners or equals. No divinities share in His attributes, nor do acts exist except through His Creative Power alone.
There is no divinity in the creation, nor any createdness in the Divine.
He says:
He exists without beginning and is abiding eternally and unchangingly without end.
He says:
He is Independent in His Self-Subsistence and free of any need or dependency, while everything in creation is in absolute dependency and need of Him.
He says:
He does not resemble any created thing. He is Transcendent and without spouse, partner, equal, or offspring. He is genderless, unique, and exalted beyond both imagination and visualization.
He is not characterized by size, shape, form, colour, or any other finite quality in time and space by which created things are qualified.
He says,
The above attributes are summed up in the Quran in the Chapter al-Ikhlas, which the Prophet, peace be upon him, described as equal to a third of the Quran, thereby signifying its importance:
He is the Living, eternally characterized by the attribute of Life which has no beginning and no end. He says:
He is the Powerful (omnipotent), possessing the attribute of Power through which He creates and annihilates, bringing things into existence or placing them back into nonexistence. He says:
He possesses the attribute of perfect and all-encompassing Knowledge. He is the All-Knowing from Whom nothing is ever hidden or unknown. He says:
He possesses the attribute of Will, by which He specifies each and every possibility. Non-existing possibilities cannot enter into existence unless He first wills it. He says:
He is the All-Hearing, possessing the attribute of Hearing without the need for ears or any other physical auditory means. Likewise, He is the All-Seeing, possessing the attribute of Sight without the need for eyes or any other means of physical sight. Nothing escapes His Hearing and His Sight. He says:
He possesses the attribute of Speech. His Speech is beginningless and eternal, without resembling the speech of created things in any way. His Divine Speech is not characterized by sound, letter, or voice. The words of the Holy Quran indicate some of this Eternal Speech. He says:
Although God may at times seem distant in His Transcendence and utter Majesty, God is also near and intimately involved with His creatures. He says:
He also says: