way, does it leave the slightest possibility for the acceptance of partnership; on the contrary, it uproots all such possibility.
Since such sublime power and grandeur exist and since that grandeur is at the very apex of perfection and comprehends everything, it is certainly in no way possible to permit or allow any attribution of partners to that Unique and Powerful Being, for so doing would ascribe impotence or need to that power, fault to that grandeur, defect to that perfection, and impose restriction on that comprehensiveness. No sound intellect could deem this possible.
The assignment of partners to God, is then by virtue of the offence it causes to God’s Grandeur, the dignity of his Glory and His Sublimity, so grave a crime that the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition decrees with an earnest threat,
God does not pardon the assignment to Him of a partner; He pardons whatever is lesser than that.1
THE SECOND TRUTH: The absoluteness, the comprehensiveness, and appearance in infinite form of the dominical deeds seen at work in the cosmos.
It is only God’s wisdom and will that limits and restricts those deeds, as well as the inherent capacities of the objects and places in which they manifest themselves. Stray chance, dumb nature, blind force, unconscious causality and the elements that without restriction are scattered in every direction — none of these can have any part in the most balanced, wise perspicacious, life-giving, orderly and firm deeds of the Creator. They are used, rather, by the command, will, and power of the Glorious Doer as an apparent veil to conceal His power.
Three out of innumerable examples:
We will set forth three from among the numerous subtle points that relate to the three deeds indicated in three continuous verses in Sura al-Nahl.
The First:
Your Sustainer inspired in the bee that it should seek a dwelling-place in the mountains.2
The bee is, with respect to its disposition and function, such a miracle of God’s power that a whole sura, Sura al-Nahl, has been named after it. For to inscribe in the minute head of that little honey-machine a complete
Qur’an, 4:48.
Qur’an, 16:68.