buzzing of a mosquito by the roaring of thunder?

The essence of the unbelief that opposes the truths of Islam and struggles against them is denial, ignorance, and negation. Even though it may appear to be an affirmation of some kind and a manifestation of being, it is in reality negation and non-being. Whereas belief is knowledge and a manifestation of being; it is affirmation and judgement. Every negating aspect of belief is the gate to a positive truth or the veil covering it. If the unbelievers who struggle against faith attempt, with the utmost difficulty, to affirm and accept their negative beliefs in the form of acceptance and admission of non-being, then their unbelief may be regarded in one respect as a form of mistaken knowledge or erroneous judgement. But as for non-accceptance, denial, and non-admission —something more easily done— it is absolute ignorance and total absence of judgement.

In Short: The convictions underlying unbelief are then of two kinds:

The First pays no regard to the truths of Islam. It is an erroneous admission, a baseless belief and a mistaken acceptance peculiar to itself; it is an unjust judgement. This kind of unbelief is beyond the scope of our discussion. It has no concern with us, nor do we have any concern with it.

The Second Kind opposes the truths of belief and struggles against them. It consists in turn of two varieties.

The First is non-acceptance. It consists simply of not consenting to affirmation. This is a species of ignorance; there is no judgement in-volved and it occurs easily. It too is beyond the scope of our discussion.

The Second variety is acceptance of non-being. It is to consent to non-being with one’s heart, and a judgement is involved. It is a conviction and a taking the part of something. It is on account of this partiality that it is obliged to affirm its negation.

The negation comprises two types:

The First Type says: “A certain thing does not exist at a certain place or in a particular direction.” This kind of denial can be