Thus, a servant may perceive the element common to created things—the reality present in them and encompassing them—and suppose that it is the Creator, because it resembles Him in being universal in a certain respect. Yet it is only His handiwork and creation. He may then ascend to one of His veils of light or fire and suppose that it is He, then ascend to His light and the manifest effects of His attributes. Some of these people may thus fall into something akin to the doctrine of absolute, universal union of Creator and creation.

But if Allah comes to their aid in His mercy, and they hold fast to the rope of Allah and follow His guidance, they realize that all this is created by Allah, that the Creator is not the creation, and that they are all servants of Allah.

Sometimes this may happen to someone in a state of loss of self-awareness or spiritual intoxication. He is then mistaken and in error, although this is forgiven him if it arises from a cause that is not prohibited, as we have mentioned in the analogous case of union with a particular individual.