apparent.
Allah is the Enricher, yet a servant of His whom He has enriched cannot be thought at all as
being absolutely independent. The least of his affairs proves that he needs al-Mughni;
therefore, he is never independent; rather, he may be independent of anyone except Allah
Who provides him with what he needs while not jeopardizing the causes for his needs. The
true independent person is one who does not need anyone at all. One who needs and finds
what he needs is independent only by way of analogy, which is the most that can be said
about anyone besides Allah. As regarding the lack of need, this is out of the question for
anyone besides Him. But if one needs none save Allah, then he will be called ghaniyy. Had he
had no need at all, the verse saying "... and Allah is self-Sufficient while you have need (of
Him)" (Qura'n, 47:38) would not have been accurate. Had there been any possibility at all that
Allah could in any way be regarded as in need of anything, there would have been no need for
the Almighty to be al-Mughni, the Enricher.
Al-Mughni makes whomsoever from among His servants self-sufficient. He grants
independence and self-sufficiency to His servants, and He can be regarded as granting them
self-sufficiency. And Allah also makes some of His servants independent of others, for all
needs are in reality met by Him: His creatures cannot do anything for themselves without His
help; so, how can they be thought to help others when they themselves need to be helped? He
grants independence and self-sufficiency to whomsoever He pleases from among His servants
according to His wisdom and will; He says the following in Surat h: "... Our Lord gave
everything its creation then guided" (Qura'n, 20:50).
About Himself, al-Mughni has said,
... if they are needy, Allah will make them free from want by His grace. (24:32) And that He
enriches and Who withholds. (53:48) And He found you in want and made you free from
want. (93:8)
One of the ways to derive a code of ethics from al-Ghaniyy and al-Mughni is that one realizes
that he needs Him constantly, and that he trusts in what Allah has more than he does in what
he himself has, and to be good in conducting generosity and benevolence towards other
servants of Allah. One of the norms of conduct of a believer with regard to the Attribute "al-
Mughni" is that once he realizes Him to be the One and only One Who is Independent of any
need, the One Who satisfies all the needs of His servants, he will rely on Him in everything
and refer to Him in every matter.
- "Al-Mani`"
Allah, Glory and Praise are due to Him, and only to Him, has said, Or do they have gods who