are many in the eyes of the beholder, yet not a single one of them is in the mirror, even though the mirror affects the image in one respect and does not affect it in another.

Although their statements contain grievous forms of major polytheism and the gravest disbelief, they have gone astray concerning this hadith in several respects. First, they regard Allah’s coming to His servants on the Day of Resurrection—in forms other than those in which they recognize Him, and then in forms in which they recognize Him—as being of the same kind as all the forms that exist in this world and the Hereafter. For they believe that He is the One manifest in every form, even the forms of dogs and pigs.

Someone who had been with two of their false masters told me that they passed a dead, mangy dog. One said to the other, “This too is my essence.” The other replied, “Is there anything at all outside it?”