the other.

Thirty-third point: By the unveiling of these veils, he must mean either their existence—in which case they already exist, yet this has not occurred—or their nonexistence. If they ceased to exist, knowledge of Allah through the veils themselves could only be inferior to knowledge of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, while they exist. The same applies, on his own principles, to seeing Him, since, in his view, such seeing has no connection with whether these veils exist or not. Thus, his interpretation of the statement, “If He unveiled these veils, the radiance of His Face would burn everything in His creation that His sight reaches,” is untenable on either assumption.

Thirty-fourth point: He said, “It would burn everything His sight reaches.” He did not restrict this to the human being who is incapable of beholding those perfections.

Thirty-fifth point: Regarding the statement in the authentic hadith, “His veil is light—or fire. If He removed it, the radiance of His Face would burn everything in His creation that His sight reaches,” the meaning of subuhāt (radiance) in the Arabic language has been explained. He said: