with the fingers;
hence it has been said that everything has four modes of existence: concrete, cognitive, verbal, and written—existence in external reality, in minds, on tongues, and through fingers.
Concrete existence, however, is the existence of things in themselves, and Allah is the Creator of everything. Mental existence, which pertains to the heart, is the knowledge of those things held in the heart. The expression of that knowledge constitutes verbal existence, while writing it constitutes written existence, produced by the fingers. Teaching writing necessarily entails teaching verbal expression, which in turn entails imparting knowledge. Thus He said:
“He taught by the pen,”
because teaching by the pen entails all three levels. He spoke of teaching in general, then specified, saying:
“He taught man what he did not know.”
People have disputed whether the existence of each thing is identical to its essence. This has been discussed at length elsewhere, where it was explained that the correct position is as follows: “existence” may mean what is established in external reality, while “essence” means what is conceived in the mind. Understood in this way, the existence of things established in external reality is not their essence as conceived in the mind. Yet Allah created what exists in external reality and knew the essences conceived in minds, as He explained in the first surah of the Quran that He revealed.
Both “existence” and “essence” may also refer to what is realized in external reality and to what is realized in the mind. If both terms mean what is realized in external reality, or what is conceived in the mind, then they are not two distinct things in external reality; rather, the one is the other. Likewise, when the mind conceives of something, that image