unity. Nor does Philo speak of the Holy Spirit as a Hypostasis. Yet he approached the conclusion that some kinds of plurality are consistent with unity.

Some learned and thoughtful Muslim philosophers have been driven to infer at least as much on this subject as Philo did. Probably what they have written is due in part to deep thought, in part to their partial knowledge of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Being too proud and perhaps too prejudiced to accept this divine teaching with due humility and reverence, they have felt compelled at any rate to admit that God's nature is not a mere (محض) unit, but contains within it some kind of plurality. This will be evident from the following extracts from their books.

For example, Kashani, in his work entitled Technical Meanings (اصطلاحات) writes thus of the nature of God: 'The "first unveiling" (تجلّيّ) is the unveiling of the essence, that is, the unveiling of the essence alone to itself, that is the (divine) unique Majesty, ^l in which there is neither quality nor norm, since oneness is the very self of the essence which is true and mere existence; for whatever there is besides existence, from the fact that the latter is existence, is nought but absolute non-existence. The "second unveiling" is that by which appear

the sources of the stable contingents (i.e. existent creatures themselves), which are the essences becoming evident to itself, and this is the first self-manifestation in its attribute of knowledge and perception.'¹

This theory of the Sufis lies open to many objections, but it shows that, if God be conceived of as a mere barren monad (وحدة), then the Deity must be unconscious as well as unable to reveal Himself. Hence the logical result of such monotheism is absolute agnosticism. The theory, in order to account even for the creation of the universe, is obliged to suppose that a change took place in the unchangeable divine nature. Even then, according to this theory, existent things are not God's creatures but are emanations from Him. This is plainly pantheism, because it makes the whole universe partake of the divine nature. All this blasphemy is the result of an attempt to reject the Scriptural doctrine of the Holy Trinity; and in rejecting it the Sufis find themselves obliged to admit a plurality in the Deity. But this plurality destroys the unity and leads to polytheism, which is opposed by the doctrine of the Trinity of Hypostases in the divine Unity.