How Does the Qur'an Describe the Source of Being?

This article examines how the Qur’an describes the relation between God and being. Is God presented as the highest among beings, or as the source that makes the existence of beings possible? The article argues that the second reading has the more coherent textual basis. On this reading God is transcendent as the creator, sustainer and knower of being, yet He is not identical with any being, and He relates to beings through knowledge, encompassing presence and nearness. Starting from selected root-families, the study derives fourteen principles, evaluates each against relevant verses, and assigns each a level of support. The strongest objection, that such principles reduce God’s essence to a set of relations, is addressed directly. The study concludes that transcendence and immanence can be held together within the text. This balance, however, is an interpretation rather than a demonstrative proof.