“And that is for Allah’s sake; and if He wills,
He will bless the limbs of a body torn apart.”

In the Sahīh, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is reported to have said:

“Abraham told only three lies, all of them for Allah’s sake.”

Abū Dharr said: “We are all fools for Allah’s sake.” Others have said: “We have suffered for Allah’s sake.” The meaning is on Allah’s side and in His cause—that is, for Allah’s sake and seeking His Face. The Self is not what is meant here. Similar expressions occur in the Quran:

“So fear Allah and set right relations among yourselves,”

and:

“He knows what is within the hearts.”

These refer, respectively, to the condition and circumstances pertaining to your mutual relations, and to His knowledge of the thoughts and the like that dwell within hearts. Thus, the word dhāt in the speech of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and the Companions, and in pure Arabic usage, carries this meaning. The theologians and others subsequently applied it to the “Self” for the reason explained above: it possesses the attributes. Thus, when they say “the Essence,” they are saying “that which possesses the attributes.”

A report transmitted both with and without attribution to the Prophet states:

“Reflect on Allah’s blessings, but do not reflect on Allah’s Essence.”

If this wording, or something similar, is authentically established from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and his Companions, then their speech does contain the application of the word dhāt to the Self, as later scholars use it.

Once this principle is established, it remains “like motion.” Its persistence has been disputed, as has that of taste, colour and smell; most rational thinkers hold that it may persist. In their view, these accidents cannot validly be used to infer that the body came into existence;