Therefore, the recognition of Allah can only be achieved through that which is structurally permanent and eternal; because a substance is everlasting by virtue of the eternity of its cosmic Origin, while an accidental property is finite and corruptible. A substance undergoes no intrinsic mutation; and verily, abstract entities, intelligible realities, and individual souls are primordial, eternal, and everlasting—never touched by material contamination [al-taghbir], corruption, or ultimate dissolution.

And he said in another place: 'And when you gaze upon it from the standpoint of existing entities, you find it possessing multiple, divided forms, and you perceive a particular quality [kayfiyyah] subsisting within a subtle, spiritual medium [latifah]. Yet, it is a single Substance [jawharun wahid] subsisting throughout the whole, filled entirely with light—and that is the Person of the Gate [Shakhs al-Bab], his attribute, his description, and his emanated form, which is poured forth from the Originator of the whole, the Bestower of forms and existence.'

...Up to his saying: 'Thus, physical bodies and objects falling under the domain of the senses are mere accidental properties [a'rad] in relation to the state [or locus], whereas he is the absolute Substance.