with the world must therefore not be within it; and whatever is not separate from it in a respect other than essence and time cannot be outside it.

Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, stated what is necessarily known by reason: if He is within it and not separate from it, He must be in contact with it. For one thing cannot intelligibly be within another without being in contact with it rather than separate from it. Since he was addressing the Jahmīs who say that He is everywhere, he explained that either contact or separation is inevitable on this assumption—namely, the assumption of co-location. For they did not deny His being within the world; they denied only His being outside it.

He mentioned the Jahmīs’ claim denying both of these contradictories, saying: “We asked, ‘If He is not separate, is He not in contact?’ He replied, ‘No.’” Ahmad then asked: “How, then, can He be in everything without being in contact?” Ahmad’s point is that this is unintelligible: how could it be so? He mentioned that his opponent could not give a satisfactory answer, since he could not describe anything intelligibly conceived as being in everything while nevertheless not being in contact with it. Since this was unintelligible, his opponent resorted to saying, “Without specifying how.” Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “With this expression he deceived the ignorant, misleading them.”