No one can benefit or hurt either himself or anyone else except with the permission of the Creator, may He be exalted. For if a servant has more than one master and each of them is able to help him, it is impossible that he should come to rely exclusively on any one of them because he expects help from each of them. If one of his masters is able to help him more than the other, his reliance upon the former will be greater in proportion to that person's power, though he will also rely on the other. If only one of them can benefit or harm him he must necessarily place his trust exclusively in that person since he does not expect help from anyone else.