a beholder and found by a finder, even if they use these expressions at a time when no one else witnesses, sees, or finds it. They may also reserve these expressions for the time when a witness witnesses it, a beholder sees it, and a finder finds it. Often, however, they intend the first meaning, applying “existent” to whatever has being and is established because it can be found by a finder.

Likewise, by the word wujūd (existence), they sometimes mean the verbal noun, which is its original sense, and sometimes the object—that is, the existent—as with the word khalq (creation) and similar expressions. The same applies to the verb: they say wujida hādhā (“this was found”), using a passive verb form. By this they may mean that a finder found it, or they may mean that it came to be and became actual, so that a finder could find it.

Then, when this latter meaning became predominant in their usage, the terms mawjūd (existent) and wujūd (existence) came to signify established reality, being, and actuality, without their having in mind the existence of a finder for it, whether in actuality or in principle. These, then, are three meanings. Yet this meaning recedes from the mind only because the speaker intends nothing beyond being and established reality themselves, even though the other meaning necessarily accompanies it.

We therefore say: people’s agreement in using this expression in this sense is evidence that the two meanings are inseparable. Just as everything found by a finder has