QUESTION XII.

How are eternal and temporal separate,*
That one is the world, and the other God?

ANSWER XII.

705 Eternal and temporal are not separate from one another.
For in that Being this non-existent has its being.
The first is all in all, the other is like the 'Anka,*
Save “The Truth” no names have things answering to them.
Not being to become existent—this is impossible,
But real Being in point of existence is imperishable.
Neither does this become that, nor that this.
All difficulties are now plain before you;
The whole world is merely an imaginary thing,
It is like one point whirled round in a circle.
710 Go! whirl round a single spark of fire,
And from its quick motion you will see a circle.
Though one be counted again and again,*
Yet surely one becomes not many by this counting.
Cast away the saying “What is other than Allah
By your own reason separate that from this.
How can you doubt that this is a dream?*
For duality by the side of unity is a pure delusion.
Not being is single like being,
All plurality proceeds from attribution.*
715 The manifestation of differences and plurality of things
Proceed from the chameleon contingent.*
Since the Being in all of them is One,*
They all bear witness to the unity of “The Truth.”