Surah Al-Ikhlas: (The Declaration Of [God's] Perfection)

[1] This rendering gives no more than an approximate meaning of the term as-Samad, which occurs in the Qur'an only once, and is applied, to God Alone. It comprises the concepts of Primary Cause and eternal, independent. Being, combined with the idea that everything existing or conceivable goes back to Him as its source and is therefore, dependent on Him for its beginning as well as for its continued existence.

[2] Cf. note 2 on 89:3, as well as surah 19, note 77. The fact that God is one and unique in every respect, without beginning and without end, has its logical correlate in the statement that "there is nothing that could be compared with Him" - thus precluding any possibility of describing or defining Him (see note 88 on the last sentence of 6:100). Consequently, the quality of His Being is beyond the range of human comprehension or imagination: which also explains why any attempt at "depicting" God by means of figurative representations or even abstract symbols must be qualified as a blasphemous denial of the truth.