description is such and such, specifying qualities that distinguish it and cannot apply to anything else. This differs from the subject of an advance-payment sale, which must not be a particular, designated item. Whenever it is so designated, the advance-payment sale is invalid—as when someone pays in advance for the proceeds of a particular orchard or the crop of a particular plot of land before ripeness becomes apparent—as related in a hadith transmitted with a chain of narration from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

Once this is clear, if one knows that originated things have an Originator who necessarily exists and has no beginning, and knows that He has no partner—because He is One, without any partner in creation, or because of other attributes unique to Him that cannot be predicated of two beings, such as being the Lord of all worlds and having power over all things, and the like—then His particular identity may be known through reason. One knows that He is, in reality, one particular being who admits of no partner. The heart then seeks to know His particular identity, unlike the case of something that may be shared by several beings.

Accordingly, someone may object to the statement:

“His particular identity can be known only through revelation,”

and say:

“Identification in this case comes through the necessary knowledge, intent, orientation, and pointing towards what is above the heavens that Allah has placed in hearts, for they are naturally disposed to recognize that there is none above the world but Him.”

Thus, those who deny Allah’s being above His creation and separate from it—whether the Jahmīs who affirm indwelling, those who deny both indwelling and separation, or others like them—affirm only an absolute existence that is neither individually identified nor pointed to