notifications_active Weekly Meshkat-e Noor Session: Thursdays at 20:30 at Haj Reza Mosque
Peace be upon you. Thank you very much for your gracious explanations. Even so, I remain unconvinced. My main question, and what I mean to ask, is this: if God’s knowledge of all created beings is by way of presence, and He is present everywhere and encompasses all things in His very being, with nothing distant from Him, what other kinds of relation are possible? May God reward you.
God’s knowledge is a form of all-encompassing presence, a one-way relation proceeding from Him: created beings are known to Him, but He is not known by any created being. His knowledge and existence are beyond our comprehension, and both the unseen and the manifest lie within His knowledge. It is therefore better to describe God’s knowledge of beings as a knowledge that encompasses and encompasses them.
The way the Almighty relates to creation is not a relation in the ordinary sense. We use the word “relation” only because we have no better option, and to avoid falling into the trap of denying any relation at all. At the beginning of creation, there was no intermediary between beings that could be regarded as a line of communication between Creator and created. By a generous use of language, we may describe the ineffable will of the Lord as a one-way communication proceeding from Him.
Knowledge is another distinct, one-way line of communication: knowledge flows from Him, beyond our comprehension, to beings, but no knowledge flows from beings to Him. In other words, creatures are objects of His knowledge, but He is not an object of knowledge for any creature!
Existence is another one-way line of communication. Beings are subject to existence, but He is subject neither to knowledge nor to existence.
Of course, both knowledge and existence have their own dimensions, expanses and degrees. Yet what lies beyond existence and beyond knowledge is hidden from us, though there are indications that it is real.
The unseen and the manifest account for only one aspect of knowledge. The unseen has its own degrees, and the manifest, too, has its own levels. In one respect, the unseen and the manifest are relative; they fall within the scope of knowledge and do not encompass what lies beyond it. Consider that if the Almighty Lord were not to will knowledge, this state would be beyond anyone’s ability even to conceive!
There are also dimensions within the scope of knowledge that extend beyond the unseen and the manifest. Just as there is a third state beyond light and darkness, and another beyond sight and blindness—hearing, for instance—and another beyond that—smell, and likewise the other senses—one whose perception is confined to a single sense cannot deny the possibility of the others.
Light is, in reality, knowledge spread abroad. The way we perceive this knowledge gives rise to a variety of colours. Different beings may receive a particular part of the spectrum as different colours. Perceiving one colour does not justify denying the existence of other parts of the spectrum. Among colours, anything a being is unable to perceive it interprets as darkness; in doing so, it reveals the limits of its own perception and knowledge. Thus light and darkness, from one perspective, may be understood as the presence or absence of information, and from another, as a matter of how that information is interpreted and received.
One aspect of knowledge, then, is the unseen and the manifest. And given that knowledge is without limit, it is possible to conceive of what lies beyond both. Let us remember that knowledge without a veil is beyond the comprehension of created beings; knowledge behind a veil is veiled knowledge, not pure knowledge.
It is not without error to describe God’s knowledge of beings as immediate knowledge. It is better to call it encompassing knowledge: through His knowledge, He encompasses His creatures, while His incomparable Essence lies beyond them and cannot be comprehended or described.
To identify knowledge with the Essence is to confine the divine Essence within the limits of knowledge. Knowledge is from Him, but He is beyond knowledge.