can it be said that there is no falsehood in existence? Then he uses this as a pretext for claiming that the existent reality containing both truth and falsehood is Allah Himself, because He is the Real, without distinguishing between the Real who is the Creator and what is real but created? Reflect, then, on how such words encompass these two false premises, and how they have led weak minds astray through this specious argument.

They argued: The saying,

“Indeed, everything except Allah is vain,”

means that what is vain is nonexistent. Thus, everything other than Allah is nonexistent, whereas what exists is not nonexistent. Hence, nothing other than Him exists; what is other than Him is merely nonexistence.

This rests upon the two false premises.

The first is their claim that what is false is nonexistent. This is not so. Rather, what is nonexistent is false, but not everything that exists is false. Among existing things, some are true and some are false, as explained above: deeds that bring no benefit, statements that are untrue, and the intentions and beliefs that fall within these two categories.

The second: if nothing were false except what is nonexistent, then what exists would be real. Anything that exists may indeed be called real, with a contextual qualification explaining the intended sense, insofar as it exists—even though it is false because it lacks the reality that would justify calling it real. Yet there are two kinds of reality: the Real who is the Creator, and what is real but created.