A Quote by 'Abd al-Kader on divinity, god, independence, names, needs, order, respect, and time

Know however that God, in order to manifest Himself by His essence to His essence, has no need of creatures since, with relation to Essence, he is absolutely independent with respect to worlds and even with respect to His own names. . . . On the other hand, when He manifests Himself with His names and His attributes - which implies the manifestation of the effects - He needs (huwa muftaqir) the creatures. . . . This relation is . . . necessary in order that the divine Names, which are only distinguished by their effects, can be distinguished from one another. At the same time, the divine Names, by the one of their "faces" which is turned toward the Essence, are themselves totally autonomous with respect to worlds. In this respect, they are nothing other than the Essence itself and that is why each of them can be qualified and designated by all of the other Names in the same way as the Essence.