Al-Hadid (The Iron): (2) To Him belongs the Sovereignty of the Heavens...

Know that the true Sovereign is He who is self-sufficient in His Essence and in all His Attributes from everything else, and everything else is in need of Him in their essences and attributes. The one described by these two matters is none other than Him, the Glorified.

As for His self-sufficiency in His Essence and all His Attributes from everything else: If He were in need of another for His Essence, He would be contingent by nature, thus created, and not necessarily existent (Wajib al-Wujud).

As for His self-sufficiency in all His negative and relational attributes: Every attribute ascribed to Him, either His Essence is sufficient for that attribute's realization (whether the attribute is a negation or an affirmation), or it is not sufficient. If His Essence is sufficient, then the permanence of that Essence entails the permanence of that attribute (whether negation or affirmation). If His Essence is not sufficient, then the realization of that attribute (or its negation) depends on the realization of another matter and its negation. Since what depends on what depends on a thing ultimately depends on that thing, His Essence would depend on the realization of a cause for the establishment of that attribute or the cause for its negation. What depends on another is contingent by nature. Thus, the Necessarily Existent by nature would be contingent by nature, which is a contradiction.

Therefore, it is established that He is not in need, neither in His Essence nor in any of His negative or affirmative attributes, of anything other than Himself.

As for everything else being in need of Him: Everything else is contingent, because the Necessarily Existent can only be one. Every contingent thing must have an agent (Mu'aththir), and there is no necessary being other than this One. Thus, everything else is in need of Him, whether it is a substance (Jawhar) or an accident (A'rad), and whether the substance is spiritual or corporeal.

A group of rationalists held that the influence of the Necessarily Existent is only in granting existence, not in granting essences (Mahiyyat). They say: The Necessarily Existent makes blackness exist, but it is impossible for Him to make blackness be black. They argue that if the quality of being black were due to the Agent, then the absence of that Agent would imply that blackness would no longer be black, which is impossible.

We respond to them: By this reasoning, you must also conclude that existence itself is not due to the Agent. Otherwise, the absence of that Agent would imply that existence would no longer be existence, which is impossible.

If they say: The Agent's influence is not in existence itself, but in making the essence described by existence, we reply: This is refuted in two ways:

1. The description of the essence by existence is not an affirmative reality. If it were an affirmative reality, it would possess an essence and an existence. In that case, the description of that essence by existence would be superfluous, leading to an infinite regress, which is impossible. Since the description of the essence by existence is not an affirmative reality, it is impossible to say that the Agent has no influence on the essence nor on existence, but only on the description of the essence by existence.
2. Even if we assume that this description is an affirmative reality, it is still impossible to make it an effect of the Agent. If it were so, then assuming the absence of that Agent would imply that the description would remain as a description, which is impossible.

Thus, the doubt they raised, if sound, necessitates denying agency and the Agent altogether. Rather, just as essences came into existence through the influence of the Necessarily Existent, so too did essences become essences through the influence of the Necessarily Existent.

When these truths become clear, the truth of His saying is established by rational proof: {To Him belongs the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth}. Indeed, the sovereignty over the heavens and the earth, relative to the perfection of His Sovereignty, is less than an atom; rather, it has no proportion to the perfection of His Sovereignty at all. This is because the sovereignty over the heavens and the earth is finite, while the perfection of His Sovereignty is infinite. The finite has absolutely no proportion to the infinite. However, He, the Glorified and Exalted, mentioned the sovereignty over the heavens and the earth because it is something observable and sensible, and most people have weak intellects, rarely able to ascend from the sensible to the rational.

Then, after mentioning the signs in the horizons (the sovereignty over the heavens and the earth), He mentioned the signs within the selves (Anfus), saying: {To Him belongs the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth; He gives life and causes death, and He is...}

In this verse, there are two issues:

The First Issue: Commentators mention two interpretations:

1. He gives life to the dead for the Resurrection, and He causes the living in this world to die.
2. Al-Zajjaj said: He gives life to the semen drop, making it a rational, understanding, speaking person, and He causes death...

And I have a third view: That the specification of giving life and causing death to a particular time or particular individuals is not intended. Rather, the meaning is that He is the One capable of creating the essence of life and the essence of death, as He said in Surah Al-Mulk: {He Who created death and life} (Al-Mulk: 2). The purpose is to establish that He alone is the originator of these two essences absolutely, with no barrier preventing Him or repelling Him from them. In that case, the two views mentioned by the commentators are included.

The Second Issue: The word {هو} (He) is in the nominative case (Raf'a), meaning: He gives life and causes death. It is also permissible for it to be in the accusative case (Nasb) meaning: To Him belongs the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth, while He is giving life and causing death (as a circumstantial clause, Hal).

Know that when the Exalted mentioned the signs in the horizons first, and the signs within the selves second, He mentioned a term that encompasses all of them, saying: {And He is over all things competent}. The benefits of this verse are mentioned at the beginning of Surah Al-Mulk.

{He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden, and He is Knower of all things.}