is an ambiguous statement that could bear a sound meaning: without the Creator, those subject to religious obligations would not exist, nor would anyone have been created to obey Allah’s command. Yet it is known that he does not hold this view, and that what he means is oneness of existence, indwelling, and union. Hence his words:

“We willed you, then brought you forth as a human being,
That you might witness Us in the most perfect of things.”

He thus explains that the servants witness Him in the most perfect of things, namely the human form. This points to indwelling—the indwelling of the Real in creation—but his words are contradictory. He does not accept indwelling or affirm two existent beings, one dwelling within the other. Rather, according to him, the existence of the indwelling being is identical to the existence of its receptacle. Yet he affirms indwelling between fixed reality and existence: the existence of the Real dwells within the fixed reality of contingent things, and their fixed reality dwells within His existence. These words have no basis in reality, for there is no difference between the two. Nevertheless, this is his inherently contradictory doctrine.

As for the man who asked his father for permission to perform Hajj, whereupon his father instructed him to circumambulate the father himself, saying:

“Circumambulate a house that Allah has never left, even for the blink of an eye.”

This is disbelief by the consensus of Muslims. Circumambulating the Ancient House is something Allah and His Messenger have commanded, whereas circumambulating prophets and righteous people is forbidden by the consensus of Muslims. Whoever believes this to be part of religion is a disbeliever, whether he circumambulates the person’s body or his grave.

As for his words, “Allah has never left it, even for the blink of an eye”: if he means unrestricted, universal indwelling, then, besides being false, this is contradictory. There would then be no difference between the one circumambulating and the one being circumambulated, so circumambulation would not be