speaker who uttered the affirmation of divine oneness; He was thus both the one who affirmed oneness and the One whose oneness was affirmed, with no one other than Him affirming it.

This doctrine can have no real meaning unless the Lord and the servant become one and the same thing. This is union: the divine nature and the human nature unite, as the Christians say: “The one who spoke the words heard from Christ was Allah.” They hold that those who heard him were Allah’s messengers and, in their view, were superior to Abraham and Moses (1).

For this reason, a group of shaykhs who fell into the doctrines of union and indwelling—in both absolute and particular forms—used the terms “divine nature” and “human nature.” They would recite Ibn al-Fārid’s ode and glory in its affirmation of universal union. They regarded everything in existence as a locus of disclosure and manifestation in which the very essence of the Real appeared. Whenever one of them saw a beautiful sight (2), he would recite:

He manifests at every blink of an eye ...
In a garment (3) of beauty, ever new.

Another would recite:

Far be it that my gaze should behold another beside you ...
Since you are the very essence of the limbs and faculties.

(* The third would recite:

Throughout all existence I behold your beauty ...
And from every direction I hear your call. (4)