Regarding the manner of pointing toward the Sublime Essence, our Master al-Sadiq, glorified is his glory, stated:

“The intent is directed toward the Veil through Allah, not toward Allah through the Veil. For whosoever recognizes Allah through other than Allah has not recognized Allah.”

The author of Risālat al-Sabīkah stated, clarifying the meaning of this discourse:

“The Veil (al-ḥijāb) here refers to the Form through which He manifested to the servants out of familiarity and grace, as a mortal and as a light.”

Thus, the intent is directed toward the recognition of this Form—which is the Veil of manifestation—from the perspective of essential, primordial Power (al-qudrah al-jawhariyyah), not from the perspective of formal, physical attributes. This is because the physical attribute belongs to a specific genre, whereas the divine Power has no genre.

Furthermore, it is through the existence of the Power that that Form was recognized, because the Power points to the Form, while the Form does not point to the Power. When the Essence (al-Ma‘na) brought forth the Power from that Form, we came to know that this Form is not [the boundary of] His reality,