negate any number mentioned with it. It is also a name for one who is solitary, with no other beside him and no peer like him.

Our Master, the Commander of the Faithful, said in a sermon: "The One (Al-Ahad) without the interpretation of number."

This indicates His transcendence—the Exalted—above names, attributes, qualities, and essences. It also shows that He, Glory be to Him, may be described by them and named by their names so that we may call upon Him. He showed us His essence through those descriptions to indicate the validity of existence, observation, and witnessing, as our Sheikh indicated in the Religious Constitution (Al-Dustur al-Dini) by saying: "She is He, and He is not She."

The People of Monotheism established that the Meaning (Ma'na) is forever Ahad, because He is the solitary one who has no peer, nothing is with Him, and nothing shares in His essence. He is the Ancient Meaning indicating His oneness. The "Meaning" is that which is intended by a thing, and the meaning of a word is what its utterance indicates.

The Scholar has bestowed a favor upon us by his answer to the questioner in the book Al-Asus (The Foundations), when the questioner asked him, saying: "Tell me about Allah, what is He and