“That is, the unperceived presence of the Witnessed within the Witness, indistinguishable from it—much like perceiving the particular within the general before specification, or the many within the one without any internal differentiation. It is akin to a palm tree with its branches and offshoots—shoots, dates, and fronds—all subsumed in a single kernel, not distinguished in itself, yet being that very kernel. He then invoked this to justify the filthy unbelief, arguing that the established principle among the proponents of intellectual reflection is that nothing can come into being from nothing—that is, from no preexisting matter capable of serving as its potential substrate—whether the coming-into-being is temporal or substantial. Thus, the true Existence, considered in its absolute sense, extends to all creatures’ essences, which depend entirely on it. He further stated: “As for the attributes of the true Existence, they are precisely all creatures, in all their apparent and hidden parts. These creatures are accidents, while the subject is the true Existence.” Thus concludes al-Nabulsi’s exposition. Sheikh al-Faqih commented: “This is the very essence of the doctrine of hulul (immanence) that the Sufi sheikhs trumpet, most openly Ibn ʿArabī al-Ḥāṭimī, Ibn al-Fāriḍ, Ibn Sabʿīn, al-Suhrawardī, and their like among the criminal heretics—may God curse them and disgrace them in this world and the next, and purify hearts and the earth of their vile doctrine.” See Marginalia on the Sharia by al-Ājurrī, pp. 285–287. I add: This pernicious doctrine far exceeds the Christians’ notion of divine immanence, although they are less blameworthy since they confined it to ʿĪsā (Jesus), claiming that God united the divine nature with his humanity—an extremely erroneous belief. The proponents of wahdat al-wujūd (unity of existence), however, as we have seen, posit immanence in everything, without distinction between good and evil—so that every creature is pervaded by God’s presence. Hence the vehement and effective warnings of the early Muslim authorities against this nefarious doctrine. As Imam Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Ājurrī (d. 360 AH) wrote: “I warn my believing brothers of the doctrine of hululiyya (immanence), by which Satan has ensnared them and led them astray from the path of the scholars to obscene beliefs befitting only a deluded charlatan…” (al-Sharia, p. 287). May you, O Muslim brother, remain vigilant against God’s and religion’s enemies, who continually set traps for the youth of this umma to divert them from the straight path and ensnare them in Satan’s snares, aided by their allies among the heretical Sufis. In our time they propagate this doctrine through cunning, deceitful means, sometimes appearing as a gentle lamb, other times cloaked in piety and asceticism, yet in truth they are impostors and deceivers, seizing every opportunity to spread their falsehood and fortify its foundations. May God destroy them, turn their plots against them, and suffice Islam and the Muslims against their evil.”