the worlds, then imagines that divinity existing in other beings. The believer then denies what has thus been posited: divinity in anyone other than Allah Most High, and prophethood in anyone after Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. The disbeliever, however, may believe that what has been posited actually exists. He thus attributes divinity to the sun, the moon, the stars, the angels, the prophets or some of them, the righteous or some of them, other human beings, or idols fashioned as representations of some of these deities taken besides Allah, glorified be He.

The point is that a person cannot conceive of something’s nonexistence or report it without first conceiving of something existent, using it as the basis for an analogy, and thereby positing something else. He then negates what has been posited by analogy with it, then affirms it. The derivative thing posited by analogy depends upon the original that serves as the basis of the analogy and the supposition. Nonexistence can therefore be conceived of only through analogy, comparison, and derivation—not independently, as a directly apprehended reality or an original basis.

Although certain existing things can be conceived of in this world by people—or by some of them—only through analogy or comparison, some existing things are nevertheless perceived in their reality and actual existence, while others are perceived through analogy or comparison, as with things perceived in dreams. As for what does not exist, it can be perceived only through analogy or comparison, since it has no reality that a living, perceiving being can apprehend or that conscious beings can encounter directly. For the reality of each thing in the external world is identical with its essence. As for the essences and realities posited in the mind, they may have an actual reality in external, concrete existence in the world, or they may not.