the existence of the Real. He thus agrees with those who hold that the nonexistent is something in external reality, but he makes the existence of beings identical to the existence of the Real, without positing an existence distinct from created beings. Hence his inconsistency: he identifies the one with the other in one respect, yet distinguishes them in another, for the distinction between existence and fixed reality is false.

After him came followers of his, such as al-Qūnawī and others, who did not follow this approach. Instead, they distinguished between absolute and particular existence, making the Real the absolute existence pervading