The Discourse of the Sheikh of the Faith regarding the "Visionary Image"

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

To you, O follower of the Shu'aybi school, the Khasibi faith, the Jali vision, the Jasari doctrine, and the Maymuni jurisprudence. To you [is presented] what is stated by the Jurist of the Age and the Exemplar for the people of faith, our Sheikh and Master Abu ‘Abdillah al-Husayn ibn Hamdan, and the sayings of his realized brothers and his gnostic sons (may Allah be pleased with them all).

Among that which has been transmitted from him in his treatise—which is the reference for the Monotheist believers, to which the Exaggerator (al-Ghali) returns, and with whose principles the Follower (al-Tali) catches up—he (peace be upon him) said:

If someone asks us: "What is the proof of the Meaning (al-Ma'na), and what is its nature? Is it a 'thing' or 'no-thing'? A body (Jism) or an accident ('Arad)? Light or darkness? Existent or non-existent? Affirmed or negated? Beheld or missing? Certain or unknown?"

We say to him: "He is the Proof of Himself."

If he then asks us: "And how did He indicate Himself?"

We say to him: "He was, and there was no 'being' with Him; Ancient (Qadim), Eternal (Azal), One (Ahad), Singular (Fard), Besought of all (Samad). He is the Originator of things when no thing