a form like it made of wood or plaster, says, ‘He has not seen him.’ Whoever says that Zayd is the whole, both the manifest and the inward, says, ‘He has seen him; he has not seen him’—just as He said with precisely this meaning, ‘You did not throw when you threw’ [al-Anfal 8:17]. Thus the better speech is to affirm both matters in their two aspects:
There is none witnessed and no witness
Save one; distinction is understood through gathering.
Whoever says, ‘We witnessed Him,’ speaks truly;
Whoever says, ‘We did not witness,’ does so through weakness and fracture.
When an eye is marked by a fracture, and there remains
Within it the fracture’s quality, removing benefit,
We rely upon hearing and are possessors of understanding;
There is no knowledge in what does not come through hearing.
If one protected from error speaks, his speech
Is truth: certainly no falsehood comes to it.
Reason and Revealed Law are two companions joined together;
Blessed be reason, and blessed the Revealed Law.
(Following the Verses’ Indications and the Qualities of Those Addressed)
Know that following applies only to what He has delimited and prescribed for you in His speech.
