[Al-Tūsī’s commentary on Ibn Sīnā’s words]

Al-Tūsī said in his commentary on this section:

“Once it had been established that the knowledge of the First, Most High, is causative and intrinsic, he indicated that it encompasses all existing things.

“He stated that He apprehends His essence through His essence, since He is both the one who apprehends His essence and the object of His own apprehension, as previously established. He apprehends what comes after Him—meaning the first effect—insofar as He is the cause of what comes after Him.

“Complete knowledge of a complete cause entails knowledge of its effect, for knowledge of a complete cause is incomplete without knowing that it necessarily entails everything that follows from it by virtue of its essence.

“This knowledge includes knowledge of its necessary consequences, among them its effects, whose necessity follows from its own necessity.

“He apprehends all other things subsequent to the first effect insofar as they fall within the chain of effects descending from Him, either vertically, like the chain of known things arranged in an order that ultimately leads back to Him; or horizontally, like the chain of events that does not lead back to Him through that ordering, but does lead back to Him insofar as all its members are contingent and dependent upon Him. This is a horizontal dependence in which all individual members of the chain stand equally in relation to Him, Most High.”

I say:

As for his statement that, once it had been established that the knowledge of the First, Most High, is causative, he indicated that it encompasses all existing things, mentioning that He apprehends His essence through His essence and apprehends what comes after Him: