The author of the Fuṣūṣ flatly denied this. In the course of an imaginary, devilish dialogue he addressed Junayd, saying:

“O Junayd! Who can distinguish between the originated and the Eternal except one who is other than both of them?”

Thus he faulted Junayd for declaring that “monotheism is to single out the originated from the Eternal,” because, in his own words, “the existence of the originated is identical to the existence of the Eternal.” He says in the Fuṣūṣ:

“Among His Most Beautiful Names is ‘the Exalted’ (al-ʿAlī). Above whom?—there is nothing but Him. Above what?—for He alone exists. His exaltedness is with respect to Himself, and it is identical with all existents. What people call originated things possess exaltedness by their very essence; in reality they are nothing but Him…

He is the very essence of what is hidden, the very essence of what is manifest; none beholds Him but He, none speaks of Him but He. He is the one called Abū Saʿīd al-Kharrāz and every other newly-coined name.”

To this heretic we reply: it is not required that the one who, by knowledge and speech, distinguishes between two things be a third entity apart from them. Every human being distinguishes between himself and someone else, yet he is not a third thing. A servant knows he is a servant and differentiates between himself and his Creator; and the Creator—majestic and exalted—is fully aware of the distinction between Himself and His creatures, knowing that He is their Lord and they are His servants, as the Qur’an affirms in many passages. Quoting the Qur’an is binding upon the believers who acknowledge it both inwardly and outwardly.

As for these godless people, they claim—just as al-Tilmisanī once did— that the Qur’an is an act of polytheism because it contradicts the Fuṣūṣ.