you have stated is indeed the case. For we know of no rational person who has claimed that the falsity of this position is known by rational necessity—as they say of your position and the position you attributed to the Karrāmiyya. At most, they claim that its falsity is known through subtle reasoning. Yet each group demonstrates the invalidity of the method by which the other has denied this. This shows that rational thinkers have no proof on this matter that withstands scrutiny.

Indeed, you stated that, alongside this affirmation, they maintain:

“The essence of the Creator is not like other essences.”

This is undoubtedly true. What you have said therefore supports and commends this position. It contains nothing you can press against them, nor anything that entails a contradiction in their position. Affirming an existent being unlike other existent beings contradicts neither sense perception nor reason.

This is the point we made earlier concerning his statement:

“We must acknowledge the existence of a being contrary to sense perception and imagination.”

If he means by this that this being is unlike things perceived by the senses, then there is no distinction in this respect between things perceived by the senses, things apprehended by reason, and anything else. For He is unlike any created thing in any respect, whether such things are called sensory, imagined, or intelligible, or are called corporeal or spiritual. Thus, the absence of likeness that you affirm does not establish your intended conclusion: the existence of something contrary to the judgment of sense perception and imagination, but not to that of reason; or, as regards denying likeness, there is no distinction among all things apprehended through all forms of apprehension.