and “You will suffer no harm” rule out their suffering any hardship or harm such as they experience in this world when seeing something, whether because of its brilliance, like the sun, or its faintness, like the crescent moon.

As for what does not exist, perceiving it by sight or any other sense would entail its being both existent and nonexistent. For if it is nonexistent, it follows that it is not in external reality, whereas seeing it in external reality entails that it is there. This would entail combining the two contradictories: existence and nonexistence. This is invalid and impossible, with no reality whatsoever. It therefore does not fall within the meaning of “thing,” such that one could say that Allah has power over it. For He, glorified be He, has power over all things, whereas this is no thing at all.

However, as for the representation of a nonexistent thing that is established in knowledge, people have disagreed over