that is dependent and an essence that is self-sufficient. This linking essence necessarily depends upon the existence of the two essences. Dependence and need thus belong to all essences, insofar as they depend upon one another, even though the respects differ. Unrestricted self-sufficiency therefore belongs only to God, the Self-Sufficient, the Praiseworthy, from the standpoint of His Essence.
Let us call the self-sufficient one an “essence,” the dependent essence an “event,” and the third essence a “link.” We say, then, that words are confined to three realities: essence, event, and link. These three are the all-comprehensive words. Many species of essences fall under the genus of essence, and likewise under the genus of the word denoting an event and that denoting a link. We need not detail these species or set them out in this book. They have been discussed extensively in our commentary on the Qur’an, the book The Comprehensive Exposition, Jami al-Bayan.
If you wish to compare this with what we have mentioned, consider the grammarians’ discussion and division of words into noun, verb, and particle, and likewise that of the logicians. What they call a noun is what we call an essence; what they call a verb is what we call an event; and what they call a particle is what we call a link.
Some events according to them—indeed, all of them—are nouns, such as standing, sitting, and striking. They define a verb as every word restricted to a specified time. Our aim, however, is for words to follow realities as they are. We therefore classify qiyām, “standing”; qāma, “he stood”; yaqūmu, “he stands or will stand”; and qum, “stand!”, as events, distinguishing among them by unspecified and specified time.
Al-Zajjaji noticed this and said: “The event, such as standing, is the source,” meaning—
Notes
Translator’s note TN331-1: Maṣdar means “source” and is the grammatical term for a verbal noun, such as qiyām, “standing.” The discussion that follows connects that grammatical term with the event’s proceeding from an agent. “Essence,” “event,” and “link” render dhāt, ḥadath, and rābiṭah, the author’s categories corresponding to, but not simply identical with, noun, verb, and particle.
