EPILOGUE OF THE BOOK

(654) Among what we have added to this chapter and made the conclusion of this book is what we narrated from several sides from Mu'awiya ibn Ammar, from Ghiyath ibn Yunus, from Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Mahran al-Karkhi, from Asad ibn Isma'il, from al-Mufaddal ibn Umar, from Jabir ibn Yazid al-Ju'fi, from Jabir ibn Abd Allah al-Ansari, who said: Ghulba ibn Ahmad entered upon our Master Amir Almuminin—exalted be his glory—and asked Him: "Are You He? Are You He?" He replied: "I am He in whom the Children of Israel believed; I am He whom Noah called upon, and what an excellent Responder I was to him; I am He whom the Possessor of the Fish [Jonah] called upon in the darknesses: 'There is no deity except You'; I am He who called unto Moses: 'Indeed, I am God, there is no deity except Me'; I am He who spoke to him from the tree; I am He who sent to Mary the one who breathed into her of Our spirit; I am He who raised Idris to a high station; I am He who purified Jesus and raised him to Me; I am He whom the generations after generations sought; I am the Compassionate who is established upon the Throne; to Me belongs what is in the heavens and what is on the earth and what is between them and what is beneath the soil; I am God, there is no deity except Me; to Me belong the Beautiful Names, the Supreme Likeness, the Greatest Lordship, and the Grandest Divinity. Every possessor of a spirit speaks by My command; not a leaf falls but that I know it, nor a grain within the darknesses of the earth, nor anything moist or dry, but that it is in a clear Book by My knowledge. There is no god other than Me, and no worshipped one besides Me.

O Ghulba: he lied who likened Me to anything, or likened things to Me, or claimed that sights perceive Me or delusions encompass Me. How can He be perceived who has no end, and whose quality, essence, or quantity is unknown? So glory be to Him who is thus, not as the atheists described Him by His names, nor the nullifiers of His Oneness, nor the polytheists in His divinity, nor the mockers of His Lordship. O Ghulba: this is My attribute, and We have certainly given you from Us a remembrance."