I asked Aba Abdillah عليه السلام about the words of Allah Mighty and Majestic: “He is the First and the Last” (57:3) - I said: As for the ‘First’ we know it but interpret for us the ‘Last’. He said: There is nothing (in existence) except it perishes or changes. Or Change and extinction affect it. Or it transforms from colour to colour, from shape to shape, from attribute to attribute, from increase to decrease, and from decrease to increase, except the Lord of the Worlds, for He never stopped and will never stop being in the same state. He is the First before everything and He is the Last - as He has never stopped (being). Different names and attributes do not apply to Him (at different times) as they do to other than Him. Like a human who is at one point clay, at another point flesh and blood, and lastly remains and decay. Or like the dates which are at one point green-in-colour and incipient (Balah), at another point coloured but not ripe (Busr), at another point fresh and ripe (Rutab), and lastly dry (Tamr). Thus different names and attributes are applied to it - while Allah Mighty and Majestic is opposite to that.