Eşyâʾ (being, existent things) are of three degrees, and there is no fourth. Nothing else falls within the limits of knowledge. Outside these three degrees is pure nonexistence (ʿadam-i maḥḍ). This cannot be known, nor can one be ignorant regarding it. It is not related to anything whatsoever. If you have understood this, let us now say the following about eşyâʾ: Of these three, there is one which is described as wujūd li-dhātihi (existence by itself). It exists in its very essence. The nonexistence (ʿadam) of its wujūd (existence) is inconceivable. Rather, it is the absolutely existent, not brought into being from anything. Nothing precedes it. Rather, it is the originator (mujid) of everything, the Creator (Khāliq, Allah), the one who decrees, details (knows and creates in detail), and governs all things. It is wujūd-i muṭlaq (absolute existence), transcendent above any limitation. It is the Living (al-Ḥayy), the Self-Subsisting (al-Qayyūm), the All-Knowing (al-ʿAlīm), the Willer (al-Murīd), the All-Powerful (al-Qadīr); nothing is like unto It. It is the All-Hearing (al-Samīʿ), the All-Seeing (al-Baṣīr). (al-Shūrā 42:11)
The second of the three degrees of eşyâʾ is wujūd-i muqayyad (contingent existence), whose existence depends on Allah's creation. These are the world (ʿālam), the Throne (ʿarsh), the Footstool (kursī), the highest heavens and what is in them, the atmosphere, the earth and its living beings, insects, plants, and other things in the world. These are not mevcūdun biʿaynihi (existent by their own essence). Furthermore, there is no interval of time between them and their originator. Thus, it is not possible to say that one precedes the other, or that one comes after the other, or to speak of before or after regarding them. Its precedence in existence is like yesterday's precedence over today. This precedence is something other than time, for it is itself time. It is ḥāl (a spiritual state); the world has become non-existent (mādūm), but not within a temporal moment. Yet today, it is imagined that there is time between the existence of the Real (al-Ḥaqq) and the existence of the created beings (khalq). In reality, the matter of temporal precedence or succession among contingent beings is entirely related to sensation (the senses, which mislead a person regarding temporal precedence and succession).
The third degree of eşyâʾ is: whether this is existent or non-existent, ḥudūth (origination in time)...