visible existence is necessary in itself; it has no Creator distinct from it.” Yet this man says, “It is Allah”(1), whereas Pharaoh openly professed utter denial. Yet inwardly Pharaoh knew more than they did, if indeed he affirmed the Creator. These people supposed(2) that created existence was itself the Creator’s existence, as Ibn Arabī and other proponents of union(3) maintain.

The purpose here is to discuss those who turned away from the forms of worship prescribed by the Messenger and adopted forms of worship dictated by their own will, spiritual taste, ecstatic experience, love, and desire, and who thereby fell into various forms of misguidance [akin to the misguidance](4) of the Christians. Among them are those who claim that the mediation of the prophets can be dispensed with, that Allah can be reached by a path other than theirs, and that they possess something superior to prophethood.

Others claim union and specific indwelling, whether for themselves, their shaykh, or their group—those who have attained(5) what they claim(6) to be the reality of tawhīd.

This is the doctrine of the Christians. The Christians are characterized by extremism, and so too are these