"Things Become Clear Through Their Opposites"

.....the existence of the myriad things of the world only becomes possible through differentiation and opposition. If two things were not different, and therefore "opposed" in some respect, they would be one and the same. Each individual of a pair of opposites makes the existence of the other individual possible; day and night, perfection and imperfection, wholeness and brokenness, happiness and sadness, newness and oldness, spirit and body. Each of these correlative terms can only exist and be known because of its opposite. And so it is with all things, except God. He alone has no opposite, but transcends all opposition. He alone is the true "coincidence of opposites", where all opposition is effaced in the Ocean of Unity. For the same reason, we cannot know Him, since He has no opposite to "make Him clear".



----Chittick, The Sufi Path of Love---