He replied: "This is a prohibition for the believers against equating the Name and the Meaning, which constitutes excess (ghuluw) regarding the Name."1
By his narration also, he said: I asked him regarding the word of the Mighty and Sublime: {They have certainly disbelieved who say, "God is the Messiah, the son of Mary" while the Messiah has said, "O Children of Israel, worship God, my Lord and your Lord." Indeed, he who associates others with God—God has forbidden him Paradise, and his refuge is the Fire. And there are not for the wrongdoers any helpers.}2 We have established that the Messiah is the Name? He answered me: "Meaning: he has disbelieved who says God is the Messiah—that is, that he is the Pre-eternal Ancient, the First Universal Cause. As for him who says he is the Name pointing to the Meaning, while the Meaning is the one who points to Himself, he has not disbelieved."
By the same chain, he said: I asked the reliable sheikh, saying to him: "What is the difference between invention (ikhtira') and origination (ibtida'); between the beginning and the inception; between creation and extraction? And can the Name invent the like of what his Master, the Meaning, invented?" He—may God be pleased with him—answered: "Know that creation proceeds in various ways: there is the creation of a thing from a thing, and the creation of a thing from nothing. The Name is an origination and a splitting (fatq) from a thing—namely the light of the Pre-eternal Creator. He was invented from it and is not created; His appearance is originated.