and he replied: “Affirming Allah’s oneness means distinguishing what has a beginning from what is eternal.” He thus explained that affirming Allah’s oneness means distinguishing the Eternal from what has been brought into being, and the Creator from creation. The author of al-Fusūs rejected this, saying in his imaginary, satanic conversation with him: “O Junayd, can anyone distinguish what has been brought into being from the Eternal unless he is other than both?”

He therefore declared al-Junayd mistaken for saying, “Distinguishing what has a beginning from what is eternal,” because his own position is that the existence of what has been brought into being is identical with the existence of the Eternal. As he says in his Fusūs:

“Among His Most Beautiful Names is ‘the Most High.’ Above whom, when none exists but He? And beyond what, when there is nothing but He? His exaltedness is therefore in relation to Himself, and He is the very reality of all existing things. Thus, those called originated things are exalted by virtue of His essence and are none other than He.”

He goes on to say:

“He is the very reality of what is hidden and the very reality of what is manifest. There is none who sees Him but He, and none who speaks of Him but He. He is the one called Abū Sa‘īd al-Kharrāz and by other names that have come into being.”

This heretic should be told: Someone who distinguishes between two things in knowledge and speech need not be a third entity, other than both. Every person distinguishes between himself and others without being a third entity. The servant knows that he is a servant and distinguishes between himself and his Creator. The Creator—exalted is His majesty—distinguishes between Himself and His creatures and knows that He is their Lord and that they are His servants, as the Quran declares in numerous places. Appealing to the Quran as evidence is appropriate when addressing believers who acknowledge it inwardly and outwardly. But as for these