just as it apprehends the common essence. What is common subsists in the mind, not in external reality; nothing in external reality is shared at all. If the mind apprehends a particular essence existing in external reality, that essence is not shared. Commonality belongs only to the unrestricted, general concepts that the mind apprehends. Nothing in external reality is unrestricted and general as such. Rather, what exists there is what is unrestricted without unrestrictedness being stipulated as a condition, and it exists there only as something particular.
A rational person should therefore distinguish between a thing’s subsistence and existence in itself and its subsistence and existence in knowledge. The former is actual, external, real existence; the latter is called mental or cognitive existence. Everything has these two modes of subsistence. Knowledge is expressed in words, and words are recorded in writing. Thus, every thing has four levels of existence:
Existence in external reality, existence in minds, existence on the tongue, and existence through the fingers: actual, cognitive, verbal, and written existence.
For this reason, the first revelation Allah sent down to His Prophet was the surah beginning:
“Read in the name of your Lord who created.”
In it, He mentioned both kinds of existence, saying:
“Read in the name of your Lord who created.”
“Created man from a clinging clot.”
He thus mentioned all created things in their actual existence, first generally and then specifically, singling out man as created after speaking generally of the rest. Then He said:
“Read, and your Lord is the Most Generous.”
“Who taught by the pen.”
“Taught man what he did not know.”
He thus singled out man as being taught after speaking generally of teaching by the pen. He mentioned the pen because teaching by the pen is teaching writing, which necessarily entails teaching verbal expression, since writing corresponds to it. Teaching verbal expression is imparting the ability to communicate, which necessarily entails imparting knowledge, since the wording corresponds to the meaning.