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As for their disbelief concerning the One worshipped:

If they are drawn by desire to certain created beings, they may worship them on the mistaken pretext of false indwelling or union. Such is the case of someone who worships beautiful forms and says, “This is a manifestation of Beauty,” or worships a tyrannical king whom people obey and says, “He is a manifestation of Majesty,” or “a divine manifestation,” and similar things.

These created beings involve no union or indwelling in the true sense. Yet, in one respect, they resemble cases that do contain truth: both exist through Allah, come from Allah, and belong to Allah. For this reason, proponents of unrestricted indwelling and union equate the two, as we shall explain, Allah willing.

These proponents of union and indwelling—who restrict it to certain created beings in whom there is neither worship nor reward for it—are an offshoot of those others. They possess no truth, nor even a semblance of truth such as those others have in ambiguous expressions transmitted from some prophets and righteous people. Rather, what these people have is Pharaoh’s saying:

“I am your most exalted lord,”

and:

“I know of no god for you other than myself,”

and the Dajjāl’s saying:

“I am your lord,”

and similar statements.

Thus, the expressions they rely upon are those of disbelievers and hypocrites. They also liken matters pertaining to Allah’s creative decree to matters pertaining to His religion. Matters pertaining to His creative decree are universal, with no particular distinction among beings. Hence, in belief and speech, these people are more thoroughly committed to unrestricted union and indwelling than to union and indwelling restricted to particular beings, although, from the standpoint of