Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah sanctify his soul—also said:

Section

Allah Most High said:

“We have certainly created above you seven paths, and We have never been heedless of creation.”

And He Most High said:

“We will surely question those to whom messengers were sent, and We will surely question the messengers. Then We will surely recount to them with knowledge, and We were never absent.”

He Most High also said:

“Those who believe in the unseen.”

Some of the early generations said that “the unseen” refers to Allah, or that belief in Allah is included in belief in the unseen. Thus, in one passage He denied that He was absent, while in another He described Himself as unseen.

For this reason, people have differed over this issue. Some speculative theologians, both of our school and others—such as al-Qādī, Ibn ‘Aqīl, and Ibn al-Zāghūnī—advocate reasoning by analogy from the observable to the unobservable, by which they mean Allah. They hold that this analogy is established through definition, cause, evidence, and condition, as they maintain