is universal while existing externally, then this is false and contrary to both sense perception and reason. A universal is that whose conception does not preclude its being common to more than one thing.
Every externally existing thing is a determinate entity, distinct in itself from others, whose conception precludes its being common to more than one thing. I mean the kind of commonality discussed here: individual entities sharing a species, and species sharing a genus—that is, universals being common to particulars.
The division corresponding to this commonality is the division of a universal into its particulars, such as dividing a genus into species and a species into its individual instances.
As for the sharing discussed by jurists in the Book of Partnership, and the corresponding division discussed in their chapter on partition—the division mentioned in the words of Allah Most High:
“And inform them that the water is to be shared among them” [al-Qamar: 28],
and His words:
“For each gate is an assigned portion of them” [al-Hujurāt: 44]—
this concerns sharing externally existing entities. Their division is the division of a whole into its parts, as when speech is divided into nouns, verbs, and particles. The former, by contrast, is like classifying a word, in its technical sense, as a noun, verb, or particle.
Once it is understood that what is meant is commonality in universals, not sharing in a whole, it is clear that particular entities have nothing in common in this sense. This particular human being contains nothing of that particular individual, nor does the latter contain anything of the former.
It is also clear that a universal which particulars can share cannot itself be a part of a particular whose conception precludes its being common to more than one thing.
Thus, anyone who says that “human being” as a universal is a part of this particular human being, or that “human being” taken absolutely is a part of this particular individual—meaning that this particular individual contains something absolute or something universal—makes a plainly false statement.