the divine Essence: its certainty has only the truth of certainty. The form of its truth, the obligation upon us from it, is silence concerning it and refraining from delving into it, for it is not known. There is no knowledge to annex to certainty, and it is not witnessed, so the eye is not annexed to certainty.
It rules the entire world by requiring that it refrain from delving into it. Truth belongs to it and is annexed to it. Only what it admits is annexed to certainty. If a sign indicates it, knowledge is annexed to it; otherwise it is not. If it is witnessed, the eye is annexed to it; otherwise it is not.
If it possesses in the affair itself a ruling binding upon any creature, even upon itself, as in His saying, exalted is He, “Your Lord has prescribed mercy upon Himself” [al-Anʿam 6:54], truth is annexed to it. It admits truth of certainty through its binding force. If it is none of what we mentioned, it is not annexed to any of the preceding.
I have given you a universal principle concerning every object of certainty in this question. You may examine that certainty’s reality. This much suffices. “God speaks the right and guides the way” [al-Ahzab 33:4].
Volume Eighteen ends with the chapter’s end. It is followed by Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy: Knowing the Abode of the Pole and the Two Imams, the first of this book’s Abodes. Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.
