And say ‘Praise be to God Who has neither taken a son nor has He any partner in sovereignty in divineness nor has He taken any ally to assist Him out of because of any weakness’ that is to say He would never become weak and thus need an assistant. And magnify Him with magnifications worthy of Him extol Him with a perfect extolling above that He should have taken a son or a partner and above any weakness and above all that does not befit Him. The arrangement whereby ‘praise’ is invoked together with this statement is meant to indicate that He is the One worthy of all praise because of the perfection of His Essence and the fact that He alones possesses those attributes of His. Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal relates in his Musnad by way of a report from Mu‘ādh al-Juhanī who heard it from the Messenger of God s who used to say ‘The “glory” verse in the Qur’ān is Praise be to God Who has neither taken a son nor has He any partner in sovereignty … to the end of the above-mentioned sūra 17111’ and God exalted be He knows best. The author of this commentary says ‘This last commentary constitutes the end of my complement to the commentary on the Noble Qur’ān composed by the inquisitive scholar the shaykh Imam Jalāl al-Dīn al-Mahallī al-Shāfi‘ī may God be pleased with him. I have expended every effort in it and reflected throughout it exhaustively especially in those precious things that I have deemed God willing to be profitable. I composed it this commentary in the same length of time appointed for the one spoken to by God sc. Moses and I have made it a means to attaining the Gardens of Bliss. It this commentary actually draws on the work which it complements relying and depending on it for an understanding of those allegorical verses. May God have mercy on one who examines it with impartiality chances upon an error and informs me of it. As I have said “I praise God my Lord for He guided me in what I have expressed despite my incapacity and weakness; for who other than God is there to avert me from error and who is there to accept from me even a single letter”.
