notifications_active Weekly Meshkat-e Noor Session: Thursdays at 20:30 at Haj Reza Mosque
Considering the text of Hadith 6 in Chapter 4, “Interpretation of ‘Say: He is God, the One’ to the end,” in al-Tawhid by al-Saduq:
....تفکر العبد فی ماهیه البارئ و کیفیته أله فیه .....
Does God have quiddity and quality?
God, Blessed and Exalted, is beyond quantity and quality, since quantity and quality are attributes of created things. The hadith is not intended to affirm a quality of the Divine Essence; rather, these terms are used to underscore His majesty and reality, since no word can point to His infinite Essence.
The hadith is not intended to affirm a modality for God, exalted and glorified is He. Rather, all the terms used in it—including “essence” and “modality”—serve to emphasise the reality of the Divine Essence. Since these terms are commonly used to refer to the reality of an essence, they have been used here to explain the subject.
There is no word capable of pointing to the existence of the Real Essence; no instrument can refer to it, even by name. The inadequacy of language is due to the indescribable majesty of the Lord of the worlds; words themselves are not to blame.
The Real Essence is above quantity and quality, for both are attributes of created things, and the Divine Essence is transcendent beyond them.
... أن خالقها لطيف بلا كيف و إنما الکیفیه للمخلوق المکیف....
...فربنا تبارک و تعالى لا شبه له و لا ضد و لا ند و لا کیف و لا نهایه و لا تبصار بصر و محرم على القلوب أن تمثله و على الأوهام أن تحده و على الضمائر أن تکونه ...
Al-Kāfī (Islamic edition), vol. 1, p. 117
The Creator of the gnat is Subtle, without modality. Modality belongs only to a created thing that has a how, ...
...So our Lord—exalted and glorified is He—has no likeness, no opposite, no equal, no modality, no limit, and is not seen by the eye. Hearts are forbidden to liken Him to anything; minds, to confine Him within bounds; and thoughts, to suppose Him brought into being. He is far above and beyond the instruments of His creatures and the signs of His creation—immeasurably exalted above them.
Uṣūl al-Kāfī, trans. Muṣṭafawī, vol. 1, p. 159