24 AN INTRODUCTION TO SUFI DOCTRINE

from which it sprang, then this continuity, or, (what
amounts to the same thing), the substance common to
the two terms, would either be determined by some
superior principle which differentiated it or would itself
be superior to the two terms which it bound together
and, in a sense, included : God would then not be God.
Now it might be said that God is himself this continuity,
or this Unity, but in that case it would not be conceived
of as outside Him, so that He is in reality beyond com-
pare and therefore distinct from everything manifested,
but without the possibility of anything being “outside”
or “beside” Him. Now, as Muhyi-d-Din ibn ‘Arabi
says in his “Epistle on Unity”’, the Risalat al-Ahadiyah:
‘... None grasps Him save He Himself. None knows
Him but He Himself . . . He knows Himself by Himself
.. . Other-than-He cannot grasp Him. His impenetr-
able veil is His own Oneness. Other-than-He does not
cloak Him. Hisveilis Hisvery existence. He is veiled
by His Oneness in a manner that cannot be explained.
Other-than-He does not see Him ; whether prophet, en-
voy, or perfected saint or angel near unto Him. His
prophet is He Himself. His envoy is He. His message
is He. His word is He. He has sent word of His
ipseity by Himself, from Himself to Himself, without
intermediary or causality other than Himself . .. Other-
than-He has no existence and so cannot bring itself to
naught...”

Now, if it happens that masters of esotericism make
use of the picture of a material continuity in order to
express the essential Unity of things, just as when Hindu