and from empirical observations, self-evident truths, and other sources. If, however, they say that everything that exists must be capable of being perceived by the senses, then their statement accords with the position of all those who affirm the divine attributes and acknowledge that Allah will be seen in the Hereafter. This is also the position of the early generations of the Muslim community and its leading scholars.

Here, however, he went astray, supposing that Allah cannot be perceived by the senses or seen. He therefore needed to establish the existence of something that cannot be perceived by the senses. He claimed that the human soul likewise cannot be perceived by any of the senses, and drew an analogy between Allah’s existence and the soul’s existence in this respect.

This is the very approach taken by the author of this Foundation at the beginning of his work. He sought to establish the existence of something neither within the world nor outside it by appealing to the assertion of certain philosophers and their Muslim adherents that the soul in human beings is neither within the world nor outside it and cannot be perceived by the senses. Thus Jahm’s position is the same as theirs, as Allah Most High says: