Witness of Faith 57 who declares God’s unity 5 Relying on the teachings of Dhū al - Nūn al - Miṣrī ( d . 859 ) and al - Junayd ( d . 910 ) , al - Sarrāj differentiates between the common people’s and the elite’s approaches to the issue of God’s unification Regarding the first approach, God is absolutely transcendent . His transcendence is expressed by His absolute power, leadership of the world, being the cause of everything and His difference from everything . Nothing is akin to Him or contrary to Him . This is the plain meaning ( ẓāhir ) of God’s unity 6 Al - Sarrāj adds the epistemological aspect of God’s transcendence expressed by al - Shiblī ( d . 945 ) . The human being cannot know God’s unity, that is, His transcendence . He can only know that God is eternal while other entities are brought into existence One may say of God only what God says about Himself . 7 Asked what the unity held by the elite is, al - Junayd answers that this is the state of the individual who is aware of ...
אל הספר