should subsist externally on condition of absolute-ness, so that the very being of that existence is neither self-subsistent nor dependent upon anything else, neither eternal nor originated, neither necessary nor contingent, neither Creator nor created, neither one nor many, neither substance nor accident, neither attribute nor subject, neither affirmed nor denied—then, despite its flagrant affront to reason and its rejection of the most obvious necessities, such a concession would inevitably license the same for anything more specific than sheer existence, for the danger there is even less. Whatever is negated of the universal absolute must also be negated of a particular entity; thus, whatever is denied of “existent” is necessarily denied of body, animal, or human being. Yet what is denied of the particular is by no means necessarily denied of the universal; the fact that a human being is not a donkey or a brute does not oblige us to deny those predicates of “existent” in an absolute sense. Accordingly, when these hapless people—bereft of sound reason and religion—deem it possible for “existent” to be real in the external world while still characterized by these privative clauses that gather together both sides of every contradiction, accepting the same for something narrower than existence itself becomes even more plausible—and therefore all the more inevitable.

One of their leading figures once said to me, “We have heard that you refute Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq. People, we say, simply do not understand his words. If you will explain them to us and then show us their falsity, we shall accept your refutation; otherwise we shall not.” I replied, “Certainly. I will clarify his intent from his own writings, such as al-Bad, al-Iḥāṭa, al-Faqriyya, and others.” He then said, “We possess the private treatise called The Tablet of Originality; it is the secret of secrets, and that is what we want you to elucidate.” I had not yet seen it, so he went off and brought it to me. I expounded it for him until its purport became manifest, and he proceeded to write down a set of questions