He is One...

He is One, not according to the explanation offered by number; Outward, not according to the explanation of being immediate (to the senses); [73] Manifest, not through the appearance of a vision (of Him); Inward (batin), not through separation; Apart, not through distance; Near, not through approach; Subtle, not through corporealization; Existent, not after nonexistence; Active, not through coercion; Determining, not through the activity of thought; Directing, not through movement; Desiring, not through resolution; Willing, not through directing attention [74] Grasping, not through touch; Hearing, not through means; and Seeing, not through organs.”Times accompany Him not, places enclose Him not, slumber seizes Him not, attributes delimit Him not, and instruments are of no use to Him.

His being precedes times, His existence non-existence and His beginninglessness beginning.” “By His giving sense to the sense organs, it is known that He has no sense organs. By His giving substance to substances, it is known that He has no substance. By His causing opposition among things, it is known that He has no opposite. By His causing affiliation among affairs, it is known that He has no affiliate. He opposed darkness to light, obscurity to clarity, moisture to solidity, and heat to cold.

He joins together those things which are hostile to one another and separates those which are near. They prove (the existence of) their Separator by their separation and their Joiner by their junction. That is (the meaning of) His Words-He is the Mighty and Majestic-‘And of everything created We two kinds; haply you will remember’. “(51: 49). “So through them, He separated ‘before’ and ‘after’ that it might be known that He has no before and after.

They testify with their temperaments that He who gave them temperaments has no temperament. They prove by their disparity that He who made them disparate has no disparity. They announce through their subjection to time that He who subjected them to time is not subject to it Himself.” “He veiled some of them from others so that it might be known that there is no veil between Him and them other than them.

His is the meaning of lordship when there was none over whom He was Lord, the reality of godhood when there was nothing for whom He was God, the meaning of Knower when there was nothing to be known, the meaning of Creator when there was nothing created (makhluq) and the import of hearing when there was nothing to be heard.