And when He, glorified and exalted is He, elevated His allies by opening the chapter [with faith] in the unseen, and He is the Almighty, the Wise, after purifying Himself from the deficiencies of denial and every blemish of deficiency, He descends to His servants regarding the attributes and actions until He brings them to the tangible examples. They thus become qualified for annihilation in His essence and what pertains to His attributes that necessitate fear of Him. He elevated them to reflect on the details of what He began with. He said, justly, about the style of greatness to something greater than it by casting the veils of honor upon the path of wisdom: ﴿He is﴾ meaning the One whose existence is from Himself, so there is no non-existence for Him at all in any way. Therefore, nothing other than Him deserves the description of 'He' because He is the ever-existing, eternally and forever. He is present in every conscience, absent in His greatness from every sense. For this reason, the mountain trembles from His fear.

And when He expressed with His most specific names, He informed us gently and descended to us with the most famous of them, which is the name of all names. He said: ﴿Allah﴾ meaning the deity who should not be worshipped except Him, who encompasses what neither minds have comprehended nor can comprehend of the attributes of majesty, greatness, and honor. He manifested through His actions that cannot be compared in any way to the utmost manifestation. Thus, He distinguished Himself to the utmost distinction, and no polytheism has ever reached Him at all in any nation or being. Al-Harali said in the explanation of the names: He is the lord of hearts and minds, meaning their domain which cannot be grasped. Therefore, creation is bound by the oneness of the name of the deity, which they have attained from the oneness of the name of Allah [of the encompassing oneness - ended -]. For this reason, His description is ﴿There is no deity except Him﴾ because there is nothing that is comparable to Him, nor is it fitting, nor can it be imagined that anything can equal or be similar to Him. The deity is the first name of Allah, and for this reason - there cannot be anyone who is a Muslim except by His oneness. His oneness is obligatory and is the foundation of every obligation, and the oneness of the other names is transmission and is the foundation of every supererogatory act. So whoever affirms [in] the whole has completed his religion, and the grace has been fulfilled upon him; otherwise, he would be among those who have believed. If this is from him as a saying, he is protected from the fire of judgments upon bodies in this world. If it is knowledge, he is saved from the fire of anxiety upon souls in this world, which is the agitation when touched by evil, and the withholding and stinginess when touched by good. And the oneness will not be witnessed in this word, whose content is the oneness of the name of the deity, in kindness except after enumerating all the names [in knowledge]. Al-Harali said: And the deity is worship, which is humility. So whoever imagines his need for something and thinks that he has the sustenance of his need, he humbles himself, and his humility [to Him] becomes a form of worship. And whoever worships what his eye has encompassed has indeed forsaken his intellect from correcting the meaning of the deity, which must be unseen. Therefore, correcting the meaning of the deity is that it is an unseen existence that is deserving of worship and humility due to its existence and self-sufficiency.

And when He informed of His uniqueness, He indicated it with the verse of His entitlement to that. He said, prefacing what is prior in existence: ﴿The Knower of the Unseen﴾, meaning the One who is absent from the knowledge of all His creation. And when it might be thought that His description as the Unseen is a relative matter, being called Unseen in relation to some people and not others, He indicated by mentioning the opposite that what is meant is all that is unseen and all that is witnessed. He said, exalted is He: ﴿And the Witness﴾, meaning the One who exists such that some of His creation can sense Him and perceive Him.

And when He is exalted in the attributes of greatness and the descriptions of majesty and pride, He concealed the utmost of concealment. He began in His mercy towards the servants by descending to them with the feelings of mercy. He said, establishing the speech on the pronoun to inform that the one being spoken about first is the same as the one being spoken about second: ﴿He is the Most Merciful﴾, meaning the One whose mercy is general. Al-Harali, may Allah have mercy on him, said: Mercy is the conduct of creation according to what is suitable for them and compatible with their creation, character, and the intentions of their hearts. If that is specific to some, it is a particular mercy, and if it encompasses all, it is a general mercy. And for the encompassing meaning of the name of the Most Merciful, there was no existence in creation to complete its meaning, thus it did not truly apply to anyone among them. Therefore, His name became the Most Merciful - in the sense of its encompassing - meaning by the name of Allah.

And when the particular mercy is specific to what the Divine will is pleased with, He said, exalted is He: ﴿The Most Merciful﴾, meaning the One with the general mercy that aids in the apparent and the specific mercy that aids in the hidden. Al-Harali said: The mercy from the Most Merciful is the specification of one who has been encompassed by the general mercy with the distinction of what he has been favored with from mercy in contrast to one whose matter has turned to His blessings, to combine the implications of the two names between the generality of the Most Merciful and the specificity of the Most Merciful. And when He manifested to creation the specificity of preference, He applied to them the name of the Most Merciful like the mercy of creation towards their children.

And when the right of the name of the Most Merciful is to affirm a mercy that is not restricted, and that was not for creation, the true Most Merciful is only Allah, who when He specifies with mercy does not limit it. ﴿So whoever disbelieves in Taghut and believes in Allah has certainly grasped the firmest handhold with no break in it. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing﴾ [Al-Baqarah: 256]. "Indeed, Allah does not take away knowledge after He has given it to you." ﴿And as for those who are made happy, they will be in Paradise, abiding therein as long as the heavens and the earth endure, except for what your Lord wills, a gift unrestrained﴾ [Hud: 108]. Therefore, there is no true Most Merciful except Allah, affirming knowledge just as there is no true Most Merciful except Allah, initiating meaning.