external reality as a matter of knowledge and belief, but they say:

“Perfection lies in losing awareness of them.”

They do not witness their nonexistence, but neither do they witness their existence. This is a grave deficiency and profound ignorance. First, they have witnessed things contrary to their actual reality, for an essence stripped of attributes has no existence in external reality. Second, what Satan seeks from such a person is the adoption of Jahmī doctrine and the denial of the attributes. In lacking knowledge and awareness of their existence, he agrees with the Jahmī who believes that they do not exist.

Suppose one person says, “I believe that Muhammad is not a messenger,” while another says, “Although I know that he is a messenger, I lose all awareness of his messengership, neither remembering it nor witnessing it.” The latter is a disbeliever just like the former. For disbelief is the failure to affirm the Messenger’s truthfulness, whether or not this is accompanied by a belief that he is lying. Indeed, it also includes failing to acknowledge what he brought and to love him.

Thus, whoever compels his heart to lose awareness of Allah’s attributes—although he knows them as he knows His Essence—and compels his heart to witness an essence stripped of attributes has compelled his heart to remain deprived of what belief in the attributes is meant to achieve. This is among the gravest forms of misguidance.

Someone who experiences annihilation in affirming Allah’s oneness in lordship may suppose that, if he witnesses nothing but the Lord’s action within him, he incurs no sin. In this, such people are like someone who consumes deadly poisons and says:

“I witness that Allah is the One who fed this to me, so it will not harm me.”

This is profound ignorance, for sins and evil deeds harm a person far more than poisons do, and his witnessing that Allah is the One who does this