in that conceiving of it depends on conceiving of what is loved, willed, and commanded; and in that intending its nonexistence—which is hatred and dislike of it—depends on willing the existence of what is commanded, which is loving and willing it.

This is because a person may know that something does not exist and report its nonexistence, as when we say: “I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah”; “There is no prophet after Muhammad”; “The Messiah is neither a deity nor a lord”; or “That is the Book in which there is no doubt.” Further examples include such statements as: “The mountain is not ruby, nor is the sea mercury,” and the like. These negative declarative statements are negative propositions. Without conceiving of the negation and the subject of that negation, a person could not assert the negation and make the judgment. He must therefore conceive of both the negation and its subject, as in conceiving of the mountain and the ruby.

What is negated is pure nonexistence. Yet the human soul, which is aware, knows, and perceives through its faculties and instruments, has neither found nonexistence, nor comprehended it, nor encountered it, nor sensed it through any of its inward or outward senses. It has been aware only of what exists. But once it becomes aware of something existent, the intellect and imagination begin to posit within the soul things derived from those existing things: either combinations of them or things resembling them.

Thus, a person perceives a ruby and a mountain, then combines them in his imagination into a mountain of ruby. He knows what prophethood is and knows the period following Muhammad’s being sent as a messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—then imagines a prophet in that later period. And he knows God and the divinity established for Allah, Lord of