The dependency of an effect on its cause is clear and self-evident. However, the question of why, in the real and external world, an effect requires a cause, and what constitutes the "criterion and basis for this dependence" has been addressed in Islamic philosophy and can also be traced in the Quran and Hadith. In this study, employing the analytical-descriptive method, we first present the views of Islamic philosophers on the ontological criterion of causality, or the basis for the dependency of the effect on the cause. Some philosophers attribute it to essential possibility (al-imkān al-dhātī), others to essential luminous poverty (al-faqr al-nūrī), and some to existential poverty or contingency (al-imkān al-faqrī). Subsequently, by extracting the ontological criterion of causality from the Quran and Hadith, we analyze and compare them. This comparison confirms that one of the philosophical views, namely the theory of transcendent philosophy regarding the criterion for the dependency of the effect on the cause (which is existential poverty or contingency), is entirely consistent with the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah.