And the First, the Necessary Existent, apprehends those substances together with those forms, not through other forms, but through those very substances and forms themselves; likewise, He apprehends existence as it actually is. Thus, not an atom’s weight escapes Him, without this entailing any of the impossibilities mentioned.

He said:

This, then, is a principle which, if you establish it fully and expound it, will reveal to you how He—exalted is He—encompasses all things, universal and particular, if Allah Most High wills. And:

“That is Allah’s bounty; He grants it to whom He wills.” [al-Mā’idah: 54]

Were it not that presenting this inquiry concisely in this satisfactory manner requires an extended discussion, the like of which would be inappropriate to insert as a digression, I would have said enough on the subject. Here, however, it is preferable to confine ourselves to this brief indication.

[A Refutation of al-Tūsī’s Argument on Several Grounds]

I say:

Let any rational person whom Allah Most High has guided and granted an understanding of what the messengers brought and what others have said reflect upon the words of this man, the leader of his school in his time, and upon the arguments by which he substantiated his heretical predecessors’ views concerning Allah’s knowledge. For Ibn Sīnā—the foremost of their later thinkers—had stated some of the truth required by sound reason and consistent with authentic transmitted evidence. This al-Tūsī therefore sought to refute the truth Ibn Sīnā had stated, in support of his faction of heretics. Thus, in the discourse he so highly esteemed and proudly vaunted, he made a statement which, as will be clear