S. R. Faruqi:

In this verse the word asbāb has been well used. It is a quality of God's that he needs no resources in order to do any deed. By contrast, a human can do a task only when he would have for it some equipment, some means. Thus the world is called the ʿālam-e asbāb , and God Most High is called the Causer of Causes. But another meaning of asbāb is 'household equipment, stores, etc.' Thus in Urdu 'property and goods' [māl-o-asbāb] is used in daily speech. This meaning also exists in Persian.

By keeping in view both meanings of asbāb , Mir has created in the verse a superb ironic tension. Normally we are in the ʿālam-e asbāb (that is, in the world that is established upon asbāb ), or we are in a world where in every direction are goods and resources and provisions. But the narrow-eyed jealousy of the arrangers of fate and destiny, or their lack of kindness, is such that for our tasks there are no helpful provisions at all. That is, nothing comes into view that would be able to become a cause [sabab] of our achieving our task.

We have with us no favorable/helpful resource; this can also mean that those things that became the causes of our coming into existence, became unfavorable-- or rather, contrary. Thus the very foundation of our existence itself is flimsy and unfavorable. This theme Mir has, in his old age, composed like this in the fifth divan [{1694,2}]:

koʾī sabab aisā ho yā rab jis se ʿizzat rah jāve
ʿālam meñ asbāb ke haiñ par pās apne asbāb nahīñ

[may there be some resource, oh Lord, from which our honor might remain!
we are in the 'world of resources', but we have no resources]

The theme of ʿizzat rah jānā is a fine one. In this verse below from the sixth divan, he has introduced the theme of the 'Causer of Causes', but without as much fineness and clearness as exist in the present verse and {1694,2}. From the sixth divan [{1860,6}]:

chāhtā hai jab musabbab āp hī hotā hai sab
daḳhl is ʿālam meñ kyā hai ʿālam-e asbāb ko

[when he wishes, the First Cause himself is everything
what entry into this world does the 'world of resources' have?]

FWP:

SETS
MOTIFS == SPEAKING
NAMES
TERMS

There's also kahne ke taʾīñ , that wonderfully ironic little postpositional phrase equivalent to the modern kahne ko . Because we have no resources, we aren't really in the 'world of resources'-- we're only in it 'in name only', in a 'so-called' way, as a figure of speech-- as some kind of metaphor or image or unsubstantiated claim. (For after all, if we aren't in that world, where are we?)

And yet, just to push the phrase a little further, doesn't the invoking or speaking of that description seem to have a power of its own? It seems to be the only thing that anchors us in this world (in which we have no other anchor); so perhaps the power of speech itself constitutes a 'resource'. We can be in this world on the strength of our own, or other people's, speaking-- 'from saying so'. Especially, of course, if we remember that the speaker, the powerful poet, might be subtly reminding us of his own verbal magic.