The Discourse of Abu Sa’id regarding the Visible Image

The Master Abu Sa’id Maymun ibn al-Qasim al-Tabarani (Peace be upon him) says in his book, The Clarification, Inquiry, and Demonstration regarding the Complexities of the Treatise:

Sheikh Abu ‘Abdillah al-Husayn ibn Hamdan al-Khasibi (May Allah be pleased with him) said in his treatise: "If someone asks us: 'What is the proof of the Meaning (al-Ma'na) appearing in the Visible Image?'

We replied: 'Had He not appeared in the visible image, His existence would not have been established, nor would His beholding or the certainty of Him have been valid.'"

He [Abu Sa’id] says: "Thus, he [al-Khasibi] established that the Meaning appears in a visible image, and that without this appearance, His existence would not be proven nor would His beholding be valid."

He further says: "Verily, this first statement is the Definitive Word (al-Qawl al-Muhkam) that is never abrogated, nor can any defect enter it to divert its meaning to something else. For if the Meaning did not appear in the visible image, His existence would not be established, nor would His beholding or the certainty of Him be valid."

He says: "And that Image and those manifestations which He made manifest to the observers are He, according to what we have demonstrated in this treatise—that He manifested them to establish