eternal or brought into being; how, then, can you distinguish between them?” (1).
This reflects ignorance on his part. One who distinguishes between two things is simply one who knows that one is distinct from the other; he need not be a third entity. Every person distinguishes himself from others without being a third entity. The Lord—glorified is He—distinguishes Himself from all besides Him, and there is no third entity.
Many people have fallen into the very error condemned by Junayd—may Allah have mercy on him—and other shaykhs of spiritual realization. This includes even some who possess knowledge of the Quran and its exegesis, hadith, and transmitted reports, and who inwardly and outwardly venerate Allah and His Messenger, love the Sunnah of Allah’s Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and defend it. They fell into this mistakenly, not deliberately, believing it to be the highest realization of tawhid. This was also stated by the author of “Manāzil al-Sā’irīn,”
(1) I did not find this passage in the work cited above, and it appears to be in another work by Ibn Arabī. I found a passage from Ibn Arabī’s *al-Tajalliyāt al-Ilāhiyya* (*The Divine Self-Disclosures*), published by Dr. Uthmān Yahyā in his article “Historical Texts Concerning the Theory of Divine Oneness in Islamic Thought.” The article appears in the commemorative volume *Muhyī al-Dīn ibn Arabī on the Eighth Centenary of His Birth*, published by the Egyptian General Organization for Authorship and Publication, 1389 AH/1969 CE. The passage, on p. 264, reads: “I saw al-Junayd in this divine self-disclosure and said to him: ‘Abū al-Qāsim, how can you say regarding *tawhīd* (affirmation of divine oneness) that the servant is distinct from the Lord? Where do you yourself stand when this distinction is made? You cannot properly be either servant or Lord. You must therefore occupy a state of separation entailing an equal relation to both and knowledge of both stations, while remaining divested of both so that you may behold them.’ He became embarrassed and lowered his head.” See the continuation through p. 268.