Third: Upon examination, this argument amounts to identifying the Creator’s existence with the very existence of created beings. They state this explicitly, yet claim a distinction between existence and subsistence, or between existence and essence, and between the whole and the part—which is the distinction between the absolute and the particular. Hence their doctrine of indwelling: sometimes they make the Creator dwell within created beings, and sometimes they make Him that within which created beings dwell. When the matter is rigorously examined and it is established against them that there is no distinction, their position amounts to saying that the Creator is the very same as created beings. There is then neither Creator nor creation; rather, the world is necessarily existent in itself.
Fourth: They profess what they claim to be “divine oneness,” declaring Him free of multiplicity in His necessary attributes and His names, of temporal events inhering in Him, and of being a body or a substance. Yet, upon examination, they identify Him with the very repulsive bodies that come into being and pass away, and ascribe every deficiency to Him. They have explicitly stated this, saying:
“Do you not see that the Real manifests Himself with the attributes of originated things? He has spoken of Himself in these terms, and with attributes of deficiency and blame.”
They also say:
“He who is Most High in Himself is the one whose perfection encompasses all existential realities and privative relations, whether praiseworthy according to custom, reason, and revealed law, or blameworthy according to custom, reason, and revealed law. This belongs exclusively to the One named Allah.”
Thus, according to them, He possesses every blameworthy attribute just as He possesses every praiseworthy attribute. These people have been discussed at length elsewhere, for their case is too extensive to expound here. The purpose, however, is to draw attention to the resemblance between the leaders of misguidance, so that, when the believer understands