"CHAPTER THREE"

"ON THE INDICATION OF THE MANIFESTATION TO HUMANS AS A HUMAN"

If you say: "What is the Creator (al-Bāri): a body, an accident, a substance, or a genus?"

The answer—and success is by God: Only originated things (al-muḥdathāt) are defined, described, and qualified, because they are existents with originated being, substance, and genus.

As for the Creator, He is undescribed and undefined, because He is Eternal (Qadīm).

He is not a substance, nor an accident, nor a body, nor a genus; rather, He is existent by the indication of His manifestation to the genus [of beings] as [that] genus, without encompassment or perception. Rather, He manifested to the creation as the creation, so that they might understand His command and His prohibition from Him, and affirm His existence, because whoever is unknown is liable to be nothing.

If you say: "Every existent is confined by sight, encompassed by air, settles in a place, speaks in a time, accidents enter upon it, and the six directions limit it—which are: [above, below, left, right, front, and behind].