the Sunnah and others that His servants have not known His true nature in this world disagree as to whether this is possible, and whether it occurs, when He is seen in the Hereafter. This shows that knowledge of His reality and true nature is more attainable through sensory perception than through reason. Imagination and conjecture, in turn, follow sensory perception. This may therefore be used to argue that knowledge of His true nature and reality through sensory perception, imagination, and conjecture is possible.

The Thirty-Second Point

His statement:

“This is an admission that something exists contrary to what conjecture judges and imagination dictates.”

Likewise, the failure of knowledge and reason to fathom the true nature of the essence does not imply that it is contrary to what knowledge and reason dictate and sensory perception judges, as explained above. Moreover, the meaning of this wording here is not clear.

The Thirty-Third Point

The terms “conjecture” and “imagination” in the passages mentioned can bear two meanings. These terms are frequently used for things a person conjectures or imagines that have no reality outside the mind, such as imagining a mountain of rubies, a sea of mercury, and the like. Another example is supposing someone to be one’s enemy when he is actually one’s ally, or one’s ally when he is actually one’s enemy. Such beliefs, which do not correspond to reality, take shape in a person’s mind, and he imagines and conjectures them. They are false, belonging to