'Allah, the eternally Besought of all!' The Arabic al-samad is one of the Quran's most untranslated nouns. Pickthall renders it 'eternally Besought of all,' Asad 'the eternal, the uncaused cause of all being,' Yusuf Ali 'the Eternal, Absolute.' Classical lexicographers preserve a cluster of meanings: the one to whom all turn for need, the solid, the one who has no internal cavity (so by extension, no need to take in anything from outside), the master to whom appeal goes in extremity. Ibn 'Arabi reads samad as the term that ties the Quranic God to absolute non-dependence — the one who is needed by all and needs none, on whom every contingent thing leans and who leans on nothing.al-Tabari on samad's lexical range; Ibn 'Arabi Futuhat on samad and divine non-dependence; Asad note on 112:2.