He - Exalted and Majestic is He - said: ['He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden, and He is Knowing of all things'] 1 .
[309] And the Commander of the Faithful - Exalted is His Might - explicitly declared upon the pulpit of his greatness, saying: 'I am the First and the Last, and the Manifest and the Hidden.' And the sun addressed him by its saying: 'O First, O Last, O Manifest, O Hidden.' And the Master the Messenger - majestic is his praise - said: 'Ali is the First and the Last, and the Manifest and the Hidden.' And the Companions of the Cave (Ahl al-Kahf) replied to him when he greeted them with peace, by their saying: 'And upon you be peace, O First, O Last, O Manifest, O Hidden.'
And those negators of the attribute of manifestation interpret His, the Almighty's, saying 'the Manifest and the Hidden'; they interpret that He, the Almighty, is manifest by His creation or His trace, in the meaning that the artifact (al-san'ah) indicates its maker (sani'iha). And we respond to this interpretation of theirs from two aspects: