In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

In Whose hand is the dominion of all things.(36:83) * To Him belong the keys of the heavens and the earth.(39:63; 42:12) * And there is nothing but with Us are its treasuries.(15:21) * There is not a moving creature but He has grasp of its forelock.(11:56)

Imparted to my mind during the month of Dhi’l-Qa‘da was a point concerning verses like these that allude to divine Self-Subsistence, a greatest manifestation of the name  Self-Subsistent, which is either the greatest name, or the second of the two lights of the  greatest name, or the sixth of its six lights. My situation in Eskişehir Prison does not allow  me to explain that greatest light fully. However, Imam ‘Ali (May God be pleased with him) expounded the greatest name in his ode Arjuza under the exalted name of Sakina, and in his ode Jaljalutiyya he considered these six names contained within the greatest name together with some other sublime names, and said they were the greatest and most important. I have received extraordinary consolation from his discussion of them. And so, similarly to the preceeding five names, we shall allude to the name Self-Subsistent, to that greatest light, with five rays in what is at the very least an abbreviated form.

FIRST RAY

The universe’s Glorious Creator is Self-Subsistent, that is, He subsists, continues, endures  of Himself. All things subsist and continue through Him, they remain in existence and  have permanence. If the relationship of Self-Subsistence were cut off from the universe for even the fraction of a second, the universe would be annihilated.

Furthermore, as the Qur’an of Mighty Stature decrees, together with the All- Glorious One’s Self-Subsistence,

There is nothing that is like unto Him.(42:11)

That is, He has  no like, equal, peer, or partner in either His essence, or His attributes, or His  actions. Indeed, it is not possible for the Most and Holy One who holds the universe with its circumstances and functions in the grasp of His dominicality and regulates, administers, sustains and nurtures it with perfect order as though it were a house or a palace to have any like, equal, partner, or peer; it is impossible.