⁉️Question: Is God’s existence essential?
The questioner’s reasons for claiming that God’s existence is essential:
Only God’s existence is essential; the existence of everything other than God derives from His existence.
Yes, if essential existence is attributed to anything other than God, that is polytheism.
If we deny the non-essential existence of created beings, we fall into a kind of disbelief!
In Nihāyat al-ḥikma, ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī makes a subtle point on this subject. I asked Ayatollah Misbah what is meant by saying that the Lord’s life is essential. He explained that since knowledge and power are essential to the Lord, life is essential to Him too; He has received it from no one and never will.
Answer:
With reference to the four logical relations, the relationship between God’s existence and the existence of created beings cannot be one of equality, absolute inclusion, or partial overlap. In each of these cases, you would be making something other than God a partner in His existence—God forbid.
In effect, this would mean regarding God’s existence as having parts, with created beings sharing in one part of it. By claiming that God’s existence is essential in this sense, you would deprive the Divine Essence of its unity—God forbid.