And your own soul, O stubborn denier—you do not even know what it truly is! You do not comprehend how it connects to your physical body, nor how it directs the external senses that serve as the instruments of your physical frame. If you—possessing a dense, material body and a subtle, immaterial soul—are utterly powerless to grasp that soul, realize its true nature, or contain and restrict it, and you cannot even fathom its objective existence while it is actively subsisting within your entire being—then how can you hope to encompass the One who encompasses the heavens, the earth, and whatever is within them and between them in ultimate power and might? How dare you ascribe to His Absolute Essence that which you ascribe to ordinary, finite essences [al-dhawat], failing to abstract Him—despite His absolute majesty—from all quiddities, physical configurations, and accidental attributes?

[168] And from the book Irshad al-Qulub, via a linked chain of transmission reaching back to Master al-Sadiq—His glory is mighty—he said: 'Our followers [shiatuna] are an intrinsic part of us; they were created from the remaining residue of our celestial clay. Whatever grieves us grieves them, and whatever gladdens us gladdens them.