rational matters. These people are thus like the heretics in two respects. First, they affirm an expression while denying its true meaning, as is the practice of the Qarmatian esotericists in distorting words from their proper meanings, and as al-Ash‘arī reported concerning the Mu‘tazilīs. This is the hypocrisy described in the Quran, and it is a form of deviation concerning Allah’s names and signs.

Second, they engage in sophistry in rational matters in various ways, including negating both contradictory alternatives by saying, “He is neither knowing nor ignorant, neither living nor dead, neither powerful nor powerless.”

Whoever reflects on this and on their statements, “He is neither above the world nor within it,” or “He is neither separate from the world nor co-located with it,” or “He is neither inside the world nor outside it,” will recognize that, rationally, this is like the former claim—indeed, its contradiction is even more pronounced and more immediately evident to reason. It is equivalent to saying, “He neither subsists by Himself nor through another, and is neither with the world nor before it.”

For the former negates both contradictory alternatives regarding the attributes, whereas the latter, in reality, negates both contradictory alternatives regarding the essence, or regarding something that is inseparable from and necessary to the essence more universally than those attributes are. Moreover, it is inconceivable that anything existent could fall under neither of these contradictory alternatives, unlike the case of those attributes.

The reference point for recognizing this contradiction is sound, uncorrupted human nature. Anyone who is fair-minded and understands what is inherent in the natural dispositions of created beings, and the nature of existing things, knows this with a certainty admitting no doubt. This is why you find that most human beings