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Divine Knowledge

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Master Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat), researcher and scholar

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cover_type سلفون مات حرارتی با طلاکوب برجسته کتیبه‌ای و نقش ستاره کیهانی

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binding ته‌دوزی با چسب گرم و شیرازه ابریشمی سرمه‌ای

print_edition First edition

publication_year 1403

language فارسی با اعراب‌گذاری کامل نصوص روایی و آیات شریفه

Author Master Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat), researcher and scholar

Publisher Soroush-e Bamdad Cultural Centre (Meshkat-e Noor)

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The Sovereignty of Knowledge, the Transcendence of the Divine Essence, and the Geography of Creation: A Critique of Traditional Theories and an Explanation of the Theory of Mishkātī Wisdom, Based on the Monotheistic Sermons of Nahj al-Balāgha and al-Kāfī

“لَيْسَ بَيْنَهُ وَ بَيْنَ مَعْلُومِهِ عِلْمٌ غَيْرُهُ…” A fundamental rereading of the reality of divine knowledge and the tenfold structure of creation; moving beyond the dualities of acquired and immediate knowledge, and explaining the bold theory of “the Sovereignty of Knowledge” in Mishkātī Wisdom.

The question of “divine knowledge”—how God knows His own essence and knows created beings before and after their creation—has long been the battleground for some of the most difficult debates among theologians, philosophers and mystics. Theories such as the Peripatetics’ “imprinted forms,” the union of the knower and the known, and Mullā Ṣadrā’s theory of “undifferentiated knowledge alongside detailed disclosure” have each sought to solve the puzzle. Yet, in doing so, they have subjected the divine Essence to unnecessary complications and, at times, likened it to computational and abstract structures.

In his substantial treatise *Divine Knowledge*, Master Sayyid Reza Mousavi lays the foundations of “Mishkātī Wisdom” and proposes a new approach. Drawing on the explicit texts of *al-Kāfī*, *Tawḥīd al-Ṣadūq* and the sermons of the Commander of the Faithful (AS), he argues that the unique divine Essence is beyond any receptive state in knowing. God does not receive knowledge; rather, He brings knowledge forth and creates it. Knowledge is one of the Creator’s arts, while His sublime Essence is “the Sovereign of Knowledge,” exalted above being encompassed by the category of knowledge (“greater than can be described as possessing knowledge”). This book also offers, for the first time, an account of the tenfold structure of the geography of creation, from pre-knowledge to post-completion, and explains the nature of time and space as frequencies of the manifestation of knowledge.

Table of Contents and Chapter Headings

Chapter One

The impossibility of receptivity in the unique Essence of the Real and the absence of any need for self-reference
Examining the relationship between knowledge and creation as two original arts of the Lord
A critique of the claim that the Essence has immediate knowledge of itself and the challenges posed by the unity of the Essence
Explaining the concept of the Sovereignty of Knowledge and the transcendent majesty of the Real above knowledge

Chapter Two

A critique of Mullā Ṣadrā’s theory of undifferentiated knowledge alongside detailed disclosure
Anatomising the computational and systemic conception of the divine Essence
Examining the Muʿtazilite claim concerning fixed entities and the critiques it has faced
The golden rule of “neither anthropomorphism nor negation” in relation to the attributes of the Essence and of action

Chapter Three

The tenfold course of creation: from pre-knowledge to post-completion
The fundamental elements of existence: life, free will, beauty, time and space
The analogy of light spectra and the frequencies of vibrations of knowledge in phenomena
The nature of time as a window onto the horizon of eternity

Chapter Four

An interpretation of verse 7 of Sūrat al-Mujādila in the luminous words of Imam al-Ṣādiq (AS)
An analysis of the proof of the four limits and the impossibility of essential encompassing
The distinction between encompassing through knowledge and power, and indwelling and union
Imam al-Hādī’s (AS) response to the objection concerning the eternity of the known and the principle that God has always been knowing

Chapter Five

An exposition of the Sermon of Ṣiffīn: “أَحَاطَ بِالْأَشْيَاءِ عِلْماً قَبْلَ كَوْنِهَا”
An exposition of the Friday Sermon delivered after the Prophet’s passing: “لَيْسَ بَيْنَهُ وَ بَيْنَ مَعْلُومِهِ عِلْمٌ غَيْرُهُ”
Knowledge without instruments, and the rejection of thought and created knowledge in God’s act of creation
The unity of monotheism and ethics, and a warning concerning eternity in the words of ʿAlī

Golden passages from the book

The Essence transcends knowledge: rejecting receptivity and explaining the Sovereignty of Knowledge
“Neither acquired nor immediate knowledge has any place at the threshold of the Unique Real. In both, receptivity precedes the act of knowing; but no receptivity can approach Him! Knowledge flows forth from Him, and no knowledge flows towards Him (لا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَبْصَارُ وَ هُوَ يُدْرِكُ الْأَبْصَارَ). He does not receive knowledge; He brings knowledge forth. Truly, He is the Sovereign of Knowledge!”

Knowledge is an art of God: rejecting the theory that the Essence is identical with knowledge
“Knowledge is only one of God’s arts, no more than that, just as creation is another of His arts! Knowledge is like a light that Allah casts forth. The relation of knowledge to Allah is like that of creation to the Creator: just as He creates, so too He brings knowledge into being (that is, He gives knowledge its knowledge). Knowledge is knowledge through Him; it is not that He knows by means of knowledge or stands in need of it. Rather, He is the Sovereign of Knowledge, and His unique Essence has no need to refer back to itself or encompass itself.”

A critique of the computational and embedded models of the Essence’s knowledge of things
“The idea of undifferentiated knowledge alongside detailed disclosure, offered to explain divine knowledge, resembles the phrase ‘unity in multiplicity’: it is a kind of cautious equivocation, an admission that the proof is weak. The picture it gives of God’s knowledge of created beings is as though the known were embedded in the Essence and then transferred outside it at the moment of creation! To claim that God has undifferentiated or immediate knowledge of created beings reduces the unique Essence to a screen displaying creatures or a computer that performs calculations. This systemic view of the Real’s Essence is mistaken.”

The Geography of the Structure of Creation in Mishkātī Wisdom
“In Mishkātī wisdom, the geography of the order of creation unfolds in ten stages: pre-knowledge, knowledge, pre-origination, origination, foundational elements (existence, life, beauty, free will, time and space), whatness, howness, manifestation (the appearance and present state of beings), culmination, and post-culmination. The Creator of existence is sovereign over this structure and, by extension, sovereign over knowledge. Creation is but one manifestation of His art; His arts beyond and beneath knowledge lie beyond the reach of human conjecture.”

Time and Space: Rays in the Frequency of the Manifestation of Knowledge
“The image of light and its spectrum offers a way to understand knowledge and its spectra: light produces colours as its frequency changes, while changes in the vibrations of knowledge shape the structure of creation. Time and space are manifestations of knowledge; eternity, too, finds meaning through knowledge and emerges from behind its veil through time. Time is, in truth, a window onto the frame of eternity. Knowledge is so wondrous that it admits no ‘why’ or ‘what’, yet it illuminates the face of everything.”

Encompassing All Things, Not in Essence: The Refutation of Spatial Indwelling and Union
“In his commentary on the verse of intimate conversation, Imam al-Sadiq (AS) said: ‘He is One, the Unique Essence, distinct from His creation. Not an atom escapes His knowledge or encompassing grasp. His encompassing is through knowledge and power, not through His Essence, for places have four limits; if He encompassed things through His Essence, His Essence would necessarily be encompassed.’ His Sacred Essence transcends place and direction, and any mingling with creation; He is the Encompasser of all that encompasses, the Sovereign of all-encompassing power.”

God Has Ever Been Knowing: The Pre-Eternal Unity of Knowledge in the Words of the Infallible
“In response to the theologians’ objection that if God were knowing from eternity, the object of His knowledge would have to exist alongside Him from eternity, the Infallible Imam (AS) declared decisively: ‘لَمْ يَزَلِ اللَّهُ عَالِماً’. Knowledge that is eternal has encompassed time from eternity, and time is inconceivable within the horizon of eternity. God is sovereign over knowledge and the known, and over time. He needs no pre-existing object of knowledge, nor does the advent of creation add any new knowledge to His exalted presence.”

There Is No Knowledge Other Than Himself Between Him and What He Knows: The Historic Sermon of the Commander of the Faithful
“After the Qur’an had been compiled, the Commander of the Faithful (AS) said: ‘فارق الأشیاء لا علی اختلاف الاماکن، و تمکن منها لا علی الممازجة، و علمها لا بأداة… و لیس بینه و بین معلومه علم غیره’. He is distinct from things, not by spatial distance; He has mastery over them, not through mingling; and He knows them without an instrument on which knowledge depends. Between Him and what He knows there is no knowledge other than Himself. He knew things before they came into being, and their creation added nothing to His knowledge.”