Your God is One God [there is no god except Him]: the object of your worship to whom you have exclusively dedicated your worship, O affirmers of the Oneness, is a worshipped One in Essence, One absolutely, apart from Whom there is nothing in existence and besides Whom there is no existent to be worshipped. So how can you associate [others] with Him when all that is other than Him is pure non-existence. Thus association can only be out of ignorance of Him, the Compassionate, Who comprehends mercy for every existent, the Merciful, Who singles out the mercy of His guidance for the believers who are affirmers of His Oneness. This is the first verse revealed concerning the affirmation of Oneness according to the levels [of tawḥīd], in other words, [it is] the most formative declaration of Oneness from the perspective of the Truth but not from our perspective, for the first declaration of Oneness from our part is the affirmation of the unity of the acts, while that [formative one] is the declaration of the unity of the [Divine] Essence; but because this [latter] declaration of unity is too remote from the utmost extent of comprehension of people it came down to the station of the declaration of the unity of the acts so that it can be inferred from the latter. Thus He says: