And they say, 'God has taken to Himself a son', meaning that He brought into existence an existentiator independent by his own essence and specified to the exclusion of Him. Glory be to Him!, we declare His transcending of that any other than Him can be something, let along be similar to Him. Nay, to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth, that is, to Him belong the world of spirits and bodies, being His esoteric and exoteric aspects [respectively], similar to when you say that He possesses essence, countenance and attributes and the like; all obey His will, existing by His existence, acting by His act, non-existing in their own essences: that is the ultimate in obedience and in fulfilling what is due to Him, since He is absolute existence, so that without Him nothing exists. Existences that are designated by His attributes and His names, distinguished as they are by their very entification [sc. being entities] - that which is a contingent and nonexistent quality - are not Him, if considered on the basis of reason - which would classify these as [having true] existence. For quiddity that has no existence is not a thing externally but, in terms of the intellect and intelligibles, constitutes His inner aspect (bāṭinuhu); in reality that [quiddity] is nothing but Him and so anything other than Him cannot exist to then be [His] son, in other words, a caused or created thing or whatever else you wish to call it.
