it is universal, does not yield a conception of particulars. Since only particulars exist, he has therefore not conceived any particular event that comes into being.

l matter matter

[Al-Tūsī’s remarks in his Commentary on al-Ishārāt and Ibn Taymiyyah’s response]

The commentators on his words have explained this. Al-Tūsī said:

“He seeks to distinguish between apprehending particulars in a universal manner that cannot change and apprehending them in a particular manner that changes as they change. His purpose is to establish that the First, exalted is He—indeed, every rational being—apprehends particulars, insofar as he is rational, only in the former manner, not the latter.

“Apprehending them in the latter manner is possible only through sensation, imagination, or comparable bodily faculties.”

He said:

“Before explaining this, we say: the universality and particularity of apprehension depend on the universality and particularity of the concepts involved in it. Judgments therefore do not enter into this.”

He means that a judgment is universal or particular only in consideration of the concepts it contains: are they particular or universal?

He said:

“For our statement, ‘This man makes this statement at this time,’ is particular, whereas our statement, ‘A man makes a statement at a time,’ is universal. The only change between the two is in the status of the man, the statement, and the time: particularity has been replaced by universality.”