It is the manifestation (tajallī) of the Real (al-Ḥaqq) in perceptible loci and material forms, in order to bring new murīd (aspirants, disciples) to purification (tazkiya) and refinement (tasfiya), and to make them love this process. (Kāshānī, 155; Jāmiʿ, 79)
(transcendence-immanence perspective) (people of tanzīh; people of tashbīh; tanzīh of tawhid; tasbīḥ; divine tashbīh; descriptive tashbīh; essential tashbīh)
The soundness of the meaning of tawhid (the oneness of God) is tashbīh (comparison). Yet tashbīh is not appropriate to the attributes of the Real. Tawhid is not ascribed to either the Real or to creation. For even to enumerate (in order to affirm oneness) is to limit. If you add to tawhid, that addition is contingent (ḥādith). But the contingent is not an attribute of the Real. The Essence (dhāt) is a single Essence. Nothing emerges from It. No meanings, whether true (ḥaqq) or false (bāṭil), arise from It. If you say tawhid is kalām (speech), speech is not the Essence, but an attribute of the Essence. If you say He willed to be One, will is an attribute of the Essence, and what is willed is created. If you say Allah, then tawhid is the Essence, and the Essence is precisely tawhid. If you say Allah is not the Essence, you have named Him as created. If you say the name and the named are one, then what is the meaning of tawhid? If one says Allah is Allah, yes, Allah is Allah, the same is the same, He is He, that is, tawhid is precisely the Essence. Note: the first is pre-eternity (azal), the second is eternity (abad), the third is direction, and the fourth is knowns and concepts. What remains is 'Lā' (No), not: other than the attributes (not) the Essence. (Tawāsīn, 214)
Tasbīḥ is tanzīh (declaring transcendence). Glorify your Lord with praise and seek His forgiveness. (Futūḥāt, II, 397)
Tanzīh of tawhid (the transcendence of tawhid) is of two kinds: The first is that tawhid is directed not to the Real, but to transcendence. The second is that transcendence is ascribed to tawhid. The meaning of this tanzīh-tashbīh is as follows: The Real declares Himself transcendent not by the transcendence of those among creation who declare Him One, but by His own transcendence of tawhid. For example, the praise of praise is like this. Surely, there is no claim in the subsistence of the attribute with the attributed. No possibility is included in this. Whoever describes himself or another with any attribute does not need evidence for the truth of his claim. The chapters to which the verses (āyāt) of the Qur'an allude are related to this. The question of whether it is valid for something to be hidden before being mentioned, without necessary knowledge, is also such a topic. (Futūḥāt, II, 568)
The meaning of tasbīḥ is tanzīh. Its reality is to declare transcendence, in the first degree, from resembling created things; in the second degree, from resembling spirits (rūḥ) and nafs (the lower self); in the third degree, from resembling intellects. Tasbīḥ results in distinguishing the contingent (ḥādith) from the Eternal (Qadīm), that is, the created from the Creator. (Rawḍa, 305)
The people of tanzīh (those who declare transcendence) are divided into three classes: The first are those who declare their Known (Allah) transcendent from being included among similar beings; the second, from being included among spirits; the third, from being included among holy intellects. (Rawḍa, 438)
The people of tashbīh (those who assert similarity) are three classes: The first are those who liken Allah to the attributes of bodies. These are the literalists who ascribe bodily things like hand and foot to Him. The second are those who liken Him to souls (nafs). The third are those who liken Him to intellects. (Rawḍa, 439)
Tanzīh is the individuation (infirād) of the Eternal (Qadīm)—with His attributes, names, and Essence—not by considering Him similar to the contingent (muhdath, created things) or having a likeness, but in whatever way He deserves, by the way of originality and exaltation (accepting His absolute being unlike anything), by accepting His absolute (muṭlaq) existence as unique. Indeed, the Real is transcendent above this. Accordingly, our tanzīh, since we are contingent, is tanzīh appropriate to the contingent. Ka