the subject it describes, and that no part of a thing brings that thing into existence; a part is nothing more than a part of the whole.
Hence, were it alleged to be the creator of the entire aggregate, this would mean that it creates itself, and that a part of something creates the whole of it.
Among them are those who say, “The Lord is in the world as butter is in milk, or as oil is in a sesame seed,” and the like—thus making Him a component of the created universe. The very thought of this suffices to recognize its falsehood.
Yet such people say to their followers, “If you do not abandon both reason and transmitted evidence, you will never attain the realization and the tajallī (manifest illumination) that we have attained.”
They further say, “Our kashf (spiritual unveiling) has established for us matters that contradict plain reason.”
I replied to some of them, “The prophets—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon them—have the most perfect unveiling of all people. They inform us of matters that human minds are incapable of discerning on their own, not of things that minds know to be false. They convey what overwhelms intellects, not what intellects deem impossible.
Therefore, if anyone beneath them reports, on the basis of supposed witnessing and unveiling, something whose falsehood is evident to sound reason, then it is known that his unveiling is false. But if its falsehood is not evident, then it is possible that he is correct, and it may—"