Surrounding Distinction in the Saenoddin Ibn Torke and Spinoza's Thought

The relationship between God and His creatures have been noticed in the Islamic and western mysticism. Indeed, mystics for explanting the possibility of relationship between God and His creatures, and also for preserving God's transcendence beyond creatures, paid more attention to this issue. Saenoddin Ibn Torke, one of the prominent mystics in the eighth and ninth AH, have been noticed to this issue by using the term Surrounding Distinction. We can see in the Spinoza's writings, issues like the Ibn Torke's Surrounding Distinction in his mystical writings. Both thinkers have been paid attention to the issue of God's nature, His attributes and His relationship to creatures. And also both thinkers by using the kinds of distinctions, tried to show that the distinction between God and His creatures, in not a contrasting one but a Surrounding one. In another word, both try to demonstrate the transcendence and incarnate (albeit not materiality) for God. In this article we will try to compare between Ibn Torke and Spinoza's thought on the Surrounding Distinction between God and His creatures.