their shaykhs, al-Tilimsānī:

“If your assertion that existence is one is true, what difference is there between my mother, my sister, and my daughter, such that this is lawful and that is forbidden?”

He replied:

“They are all the same to us. But these veiled people said, ‘It is forbidden,’ so we said, ‘It is forbidden for you.’”

Among these adherents of divine indwelling and union are those who restrict indwelling and union to particular individuals: certain prophets, such as Christ; certain Companions, as the extremists claim concerning ʿAlī; certain shaykhs, as the followers of al-Hallāj and others do; certain kings; or particular forms, such as those of beardless youths.

One of them says:

“I am merely looking at the attributes of my Creator and beholding them in this form.”

The disbelief in this statement is too obvious to escape anyone who believes in Allah and His Messenger. Were someone to say such words about a noble prophet, he would be a disbeliever. What, then, if he says them about a beardless boy? May Allah disgrace a group whose object of worship is of the same kind as those they penetrate!

He Most High has said:

“Nor would he command you to take the angels and prophets as lords. Would he command you to disbelieve after you had become Muslims?”

If those who take the angels and prophets as lords are disbelievers despite acknowledging that they were created by Allah, then what of those who take certain created things as lords while claiming that Allah is within them or united with them, so that His existence is theirs, and making other such assertions?