In reality, their doctrine amounts to nothing less than a denial and negation of the Creator Himself—just as Pharaoh once said:

“And what is the Lord of the worlds?” (al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:23)

and also,

“I have not known for you any god other than me.” (al-Qaṣaṣ 28:38)

Pharaoh was not denying the visible, empirical existence before him; he was denying that this existence has a Maker, separate from it, who created it. In that claim these people are in full agreement with Pharaoh. Yet Pharaoh at least laid bare his rejection and disbelief; he never asserted, “Created existence is itself the Creator.” These people, however, imagine that they are affirming the Creator while declaring that the created existence is the Creator. A more extensive discussion of their stance appears at the end of this book.

They have even versified their creed, composing odes in its support. Ibn al-Fāriḍ, for example, in his poem known as “The Poem of the Path,” writes:

For her I offer my prayers in the station where I stand,
and there I bear witness that it is she who prayed to me.
We are both a single worshiper, one prostrator facing
her very reality—joined as one—in every act of prostration.