The Meaning of the Poet's Statement: "And Thus All Their Difficulties Are Resolved"
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The Shaykh :"And thus all their difficulties are resolved *** regarding His Self and His existence, the Most Merciful"
This means that the philosophers differed and were in turmoil: Is the existence of Allah identical to His essence, or is His existence one thing and His essence another? They were in turmoil over this and wrote volumes and books. Whoever reviews the words of the Shaykh al-Islam will see how the disagreement in this matter is.
Is the existence of Allah identical to His essence, or is it other than His essence, such that existence is one thing and essence is another? And what do we say?
We say: If you mean the actual reality, then existence is the essence. But if you mean the mind and the external reality, then they are two things. Likewise, we give an example with the human being, for we cannot go on at length about something that has not been mentioned regarding the Lord (Mighty and Majestic). Is the existence of the human being his essence or not?
The student: Yes.
The Shaykh : No, if you consider the essence, they are one thing and do not differ; your existence is you. But if you consider it in the mind, meaning you conceive that something exists and then it came into existence, then they are two things. So now the author digressed to a matter other than the discussion: Is the existence of a thing identical to its quiddity or other than its quiddity?
We say: There is a detail in this. If you mean the essence, then existence and quiddity are two different things; existence is the very existent. But if you consider it as a mental conception and its external existence, then they are two things.
This means that the philosophers differed and were in turmoil: Is the existence of Allah identical to His essence, or is His existence one thing and His essence another? They were in turmoil over this and wrote volumes and books. Whoever reviews the words of the Shaykh al-Islam will see how the disagreement in this matter is.
Is the existence of Allah identical to His essence, or is it other than His essence, such that existence is one thing and essence is another? And what do we say?
We say: If you mean the actual reality, then existence is the essence. But if you mean the mind and the external reality, then they are two things. Likewise, we give an example with the human being, for we cannot go on at length about something that has not been mentioned regarding the Lord (Mighty and Majestic). Is the existence of the human being his essence or not?
The student: Yes.
The Shaykh : No, if you consider the essence, they are one thing and do not differ; your existence is you. But if you consider it in the mind, meaning you conceive that something exists and then it came into existence, then they are two things. So now the author digressed to a matter other than the discussion: Is the existence of a thing identical to its quiddity or other than its quiddity?
We say: There is a detail in this. If you mean the essence, then existence and quiddity are two different things; existence is the very existent. But if you consider it as a mental conception and its external existence, then they are two things.