If we are forced to use the same terms for the sake of valid Oneness, we say: He manifested, split, moved, and invented1, and it is all created, for things are never devoid of a creator and a created."
(307) The Lord Gate—peace be upon him—was asked regarding the like of this and said: "I do not say that Muhammad is created, out of glorification and magnification; rather, I say that the Meaning is above him."
In that which we have revealed of the hidden inward and explained of the witnesses of the enduring2 Truth—which we transmitted from our sheikh and his son al-Jali, may God illuminate their persons—there is attainment, richness, sufficiency, and guidance. Whoever is guided by their guidance and surrenders to them has affirmed Oneness; whoever turns from them to the speech of others has deviated. We follow this explanation with the choicest and most traditional reports necessitated by the path we have adopted in this chapter, related from several directions.
(308) By the chain to Ja’far ibn Muhammad ibn al-Mufaddal, from his father, from his grandfather al-Mufaddal ibn Umar al-Ju’fi—peace be upon them—he said: My Master al-Sadiq—exalted be his glory—said, and his word is the Truth: "The days and nights shall not pass until a speaker delivers a sermon upon the pulpit of Basra, commanding the people with a matter such that whoever affirms it disbelieves, and whoever denies it disbelieves." I asked: "And what is that, O my lord?" He said: "He calls the people to believe that Muhammad is God. Whoever affirms it, believing there is no goal above him, has disbelieved; and whoever denies that he is a Name for the Meaning has disbelieved."