and the faulty analogy.

Any two things share something in common and differ in something else: they resemble one another in one respect and differ in another. Thus, the ways in which human beings go astray through resemblance and faulty analogy are beyond enumeration. As Imam Ahmad said:

“Most human error arises from interpretation and analogy.”

Interpretation concerns revealed evidence, while analogy concerns rational evidence. It is indeed as he said. Erroneous interpretation occurs only where expressions resemble one another, and erroneous analogy occurs only where meanings resemble one another. Human beings have fallen into most of the kinds of error encompassed by this statement. Matters have gone so far that some who claim true understanding, affirmation of Allah’s oneness, and spiritual knowledge have confused the Lord’s existence with the existence of every existing thing, imagining them to be identical. They have thus made the existence of created things identical to the existence of the Creator. Yet nothing could be further from resembling another thing, being identical to it, being united with it, or indwelling it than the Creator in relation to creation. Those who confuse the Creator’s existence with the existence of all created things, imagining their existence to be His existence, are therefore the most profoundly misguided through such confusion.

This is because existing things share the meaning denoted by the term “existence.” They therefore regarded existence as one, without distinguishing between being one and the same individual entity and being one in kind. Others mistakenly supposed that, if it is said that existing things share the meaning denoted by the term “existence,” this necessarily entails