and spiritual experience, whereas these others are idle and hard-hearted, for the heart cannot direct its intent and worship toward nonexistence and negation; it directs them only toward something that exists.

For this reason, the negationist Jahmiyyah are involved in a form of shirk (associating partners with Allah), for every negationist is guilty of shirk, though not everyone guilty of shirk is a negationist. The doctrine of the Jahmiyyah necessarily entails negation, so there is shirk among them.

Shirk may also occur among those who do not belong to them, since devoting worship exclusively to Allah necessarily entails affirming His existence, whereas affirming His existence does not necessarily entail such exclusive devotion. Thus, whoever affirms that any realities are independent of Allah, just as colors in themselves are independent of light, can say:

“He stands in relation to those things as light does to color, for those things may become manifest through Him, just as color becomes visible to us through light.”

Ibn Rushd said:

“This discussion has thus made clear to you the original belief in this revealed Law concerning this attribute—meaning corporeality—and the innovation that arose concerning it.”

He said:

“The revealed Law remained silent about this attribute only because no one acknowledges that a being in the unseen realm is not a body unless he has grasped a demonstration that there is a being in the observable realm with this attribute, namely the soul. And since attaining knowledge of this