Because Gnosis cannot be [based] on a fleeting thing; rather, it must be [based] on the Permanent, Fixed Thing. For the Substance (Jawhar) is permanent through the permanence of its Originator, whereas the Accident ('Arad) is fleeting and corruptible; and the Substance does not change1.
He has indeed alerted you—if you reason—and informed you—if you know—in his saying regarding the (Visible Form): that it is fixed in Existence and Vision.
Then he said: {It is the Total Goal, but it is not the Totality of the Creator}2, because it is not the Totality of Existence, nor the Totality of the God indicated by the Meaning
Footnotes
1Al-Sadiq (Exalted be His Might) said: "If the Meaning becomes absent from the people of denial, He is manifest to the people of existence and reality. They see Him and come to Him through His Door and His Name (The Door of Existence and the Essential Name). Then He is with them... and they are those who have ascended, became pure, and neighbored the People of the Ranks... and each person among them has a line of Light by which he is known, so they gaze at the Moon."
2The Visible Form is at the limit (the end) of the path to reach the Sought One.The "Goal" (Ghaya) according to philosophers is the end of motion. Since it is Total (Universal) and not partial, this means it has no mover from the outside. The Mover that has no motion is Allah, and He is the Sought One.Relative to our sensory perception, it is a Final Goal.Relative to our intellectual perception, it is an Intermediate Goal, above which is the Inaccessible Unseen (Al-Ghayb al-Mani')."It is not the Totality of the Creator": Because from our perspective, it is not the Totality of the Absolute Essential Existence, and consequently, not the Totality of the Infinite Meaning. For from our perspective, it is sensed and restricted, whereas the Meaning (Exalted is He) does not enter into the restriction of spatial and temporal boundaries.