Surah 112. Al-Ikhlas

1.

SAY: "He is the One God:

2.

"God the Eternal, the Uncaused Cause of All Being.¹

This rendering gives no more than an approximate meaning of the term as-samad, which occurs in the Qur'an only once, and is applied to God alone. It comprises the concepts of Primary Cause and eternal, independent Being, combined with the idea that everything existing or conceivable goes back to Him as its source and is, therefore, dependent on Him for its beginning as well as for its continued existence.

3.

"He begets not, and neither is He begotten;

4.

"and there is nothing that could be compared with Him."²

Cf. note [2] on 89:3 , as well as surah {19}, note [77]. The fact that God is one and unique in every respect, without beginning and without end, has its logical correlate in the statement that "there is nothing that could be compared with Him - thus precluding any possibility of describing or defining Him (see note [88] on the last sentence of 6:100 ). Consequently, the quality of His Being is beyond the range of human comprehension or imagination: which also explains why any attempt at "depicting" God by means of figurative representations or even abstract symbols must be qualified as a blasphemous denial of the truth.