Furthermore, these people maintain that oneness, union, and indwelling extend to all things. Their subsequent singling out of Adam or someone such as the Messiah therefore contradicts their claim of universality. Only those who affirm union restricted to particular individuals single out the Messiah and others like him, as do the Christians, the extremists among the Shia, ignorant ascetics, and others of their kind.

Furthermore, even supposing that a person sees himself in a mirror, the mirror is external to him. He thus sees himself, or an image of himself, in something other than himself. Yet, according to them, there is nothing other or distinct in existence. There is therefore no manifestation distinct from what manifests, nor any mirror distinct from the beholder.

They say:

“The cosmos consists of manifestations of the Real.”

If they say that the manifestations are distinct from what manifests, plurality necessarily follows, and oneness is invalidated. If they say that the manifestations are themselves what manifests, then nothing has appeared in anything, nothing has disclosed itself in anything, nothing has appeared to anything, and nothing has disclosed itself to anything. His words would then be self-contradictory:

“When you view yourself clearly, behold whom you see.”

For here there is a speaker, someone addressed, and a mirror in which the self is viewed: these are three distinct entities. If existence is a single entity, these words are invalid. Every word they utter undermines their fundamental premise.