Nor is the coexistence of things that appear mutually incompatible any more implausible than things known to differ being one.
If someone says:
“Divine matters are not to be compared with the conditions of servants. Rather, a servant’s knowledge varies according to what he knows, and his will according to what he wills; these are manifold in him, whereas the Creator is not like this.”
The reply is: If you allow that what is known to be multiple and diverse in created beings can be one, without multiplicity or diversity, in the Creator, your opponent can argue in the same way, saying:
“What cannot coexist in us can coexist in Him, for He is vast and cannot be measured against created beings.”
Indeed, the coexistence of things that appear mutually incompatible in us is more plausible than things we know to differ being one. For a thing to be identical with what differs from it entails overturning the realities of things.
By contrast, the coexistence of a thing and something else in the Creator, despite the impossibility of their coexistence in created beings, indicates that what is impossible for creation can be possible for Him. This, in turn, indicates His greatness and power.
Furthermore, the Karrāmiyyah and others like them may say:
“The locus of these letters and sounds is not the very same locus as that of the others. Allah is vast and great; His servants cannot encompass Him in knowledge, nor can their sight encompass Him.”
In sum, people disagree over the possibility of letters coexisting and the possibility of