Allah, yet have come to know through our reason, does not run counter to what we have perceived and imagined, much less is it wholly unlike it. Rather, it is of the same kind and resembles it. We have already explained the distinction between what sense perception or reason establishes as nonexistent and impossible, and that for which no counterpart is known through sense perception or reason. The former cannot exist. This distinction helps us understand the matter of Allah’s essence, for there is nothing like Him. As for His acts and His creatures, what we have been shown provides a lesson concerning what we have not witnessed: the unobserved is of the same kind as the observed. This is because likeness exists among the things He has made, as He, exalted is He, says:

“And of all things We created pairs, so that you might remember.” {49}
[al-Dhāriyāt 49]

If the unobserved among His acts were not analogous to the observed, it would not be permissible to speak of it, nor could it be said to run counter to the judgment of reason, or of sense perception and imagination—as with His essence, exalted is He. How much more so, then, when the unobserved is analogous to the observed, since we have been shown substances and their attributes being brought into being after their nonexistence!

Glory be to Allah! Which is more momentous in human reason: bringing a human being into existence after his nonexistence, or bringing into existence the clay from which he was created after its nonexistence? If a person has witnessed this great substance, endowed with attributes of perfection, coming into existence after its nonexistence, is that not greater than bringing dust or water into existence after its nonexistence? When Allah, glorified and exalted is He, created the heavens and the earth, He created Adam as the last