The Pure Monotheism of Imam al-Sadiq

🌼🔆🌼Idolatrous Descriptions of God in the Garb of Oneness🌼🔆🌼

🌹🔅☘️ بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحيمِ ☘️🔅🌹

🔅🌹“The Oneness of the Tahlil”  “The Oneness of Divine Transcendence”  “The Oneness of Praise” “The Oneness of Magnification”  “A Polytheist’s Lesson in Divine Oneness” and so on … An Abstract with an Addendum       1403.01.15    Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) 110.141(903)  🌹🔅

🔅🌼 The Oneness of the Sadiqiyya 🌼🔅

🌹Imam Sadiq, peace be upon him, is the Imam of divine oneness, knowledge, wisdom and eloquence. It is as though Allah, Blessed and Exalted, created Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, as a staff for our world, for us to lean on in the affairs of servitude to Him.

🔅🌼 Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq, a surging sea of life-giving water 🌼🔅

🌷🔆عَنْ كَنْزِ الْفَوَائِدِ قَالَ جَاءَ فِي الْحَدِيثِ‏ أَنَّ أَبَا جَعْفَرٍ الْمَنْصُورَ خَرَجَ فِي يَوْمِ جُمُعَةٍ مُتَوَكِّئاً عَلَى يَدِ الصَّادِقِ جَعْفَرِ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ ع فَقَالَ رَجُلٌ يُقَالُ لَهُ رِزَامٌ مَوْلَى خَالِدِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ مَنْ هَذَا الَّذِي بَلَغَ مِنْ خَطَرِهِ مَا يَعْتَمِدُ أَمِيرُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَلَى يَدِهِ فَقِيلَ لَهُ هَذَا أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ جَعْفَرُ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ الصَّادِقُ ع فَقَالَ إِنِّي وَ اللَّهِ مَا عَلِمْتُ لَوَدِدْتُ أَنَّ خَدَّ أَبِي جَعْفَرٍ نَعْلٌ لِجَعْفَرٍ ثُمَّ قَامَ فَوَقَفَ بَيْنَ يَدَيِ الْمَنْصُورِ فَقَالَ لَهُ أَسْأَلُ يَا أَمِيرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فَقَالَ لَهُ الْمَنْصُورُ سَلْ هَذَا فَالْتَفَتَ رِزَامٌ إِلَى الْإِمَامِ جَعْفَرِ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ ع فَقَالَ أَخْبِرْنِي عَنِ الصَّلَاةِ وَ حُدُودِهَا فَقَالَ الصَّادِقُ ع لِلصَّلَاةِ أَرْبَعَةُ آلَافِ حَدٍّ لَسْتَ تُؤَاخَذُ بِهَا فَقَالَ أَخْبِرْنِي بِمَا لَا يَحِلُّ تَرْكُهُ وَ لَا تَتِمُّ الصَّلَاةُ إِلَّا بِهِ فَقَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع‏ لَا تَتِمُّ الصَّلَاةُ إِلَّا لِذِي طُهْرٍ سَابِغٍ‏  وَ اهْتِمَامٍ بَالِغٍ غَيْرِ نَازِغٍ وَ لَا زَائِغٍ عَرَفَ فَوَقَفَ وَ أَخْبَتَ‏  فَثَبَتَ فَهُوَ وَاقِفٌ بَيْنَ الْيَأْسِ وَ الطَّمَعِ وَ الصَّبْرِ وَ الْجَزَعِ كَأَنَّ الْوَعْدَ لَهُ صُنِعَ وَ الوَعِيدَ بِهِ وَقَعَ بَذَلَ عِرْضَهُ وَ تَمَثَّلَ غَرَضَهُ وَ بَذَلَ فِي اللَّهِ الْمُهْجَةَ  وَ تَنَكَّبَ غَيْرَ الْحُجَّةِ مُرْتَغِماً بِإِرْغَامٍ‏  يَقْطَعُ عَلَائِقَ الِاهْتِمَامِ That is, [بِعَيْنِ‏] مَنْ لَهُ قَصَدَ وَ إِلَيْهِ وَفَدَ وَ فِيهِ اسْتَرْفَدَ فَإِذَا أَتَى بِذَلِكَ كَانَتْ هِيَ الصَّلَاةُ الَّتِي بِهَا أُمِرَ وَ عَنْهَا أُخْبِرَ وَ إِنَّهَا هِيَ الصَّلَاةُ الَّتِي‏ تَنْهى‏ عَنِ الْفَحْشاءِ وَ الْمُنْكَرِ فَالْتَفَتَ الْمَنْصُورُ إِلَى أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع فَقَالَ لَهُ يَا أَبَا عَبْدِ اللَّهِ لَا نَزَالُ مِنْ بَحْرِكَ نَغْتَرِفُ‏ وَ إِلَيْكَ‏ نَزْدَلِفُ‏  تُبَصِّرُ مِنَ الْعَمَى وَ تَجْلُو بِنُورِكَ الطَّخْيَاءُ غَيْرَ نَازِغٍ وَ لَا زَائِغ‏[1]

🌷🔆Mansur al-Dawaniqi came out one Friday, leaning on Imam Sadiq’s hand, peace be upon him. A man named Rizam said, “Who is this, whose standing has reached such a point that the ruler, Mansur, leans on his hand?”

They told him, “This is Abu ‘Abd Allah Ja‘far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq, peace be upon him.”

He said, “By God, I did not know him. Otherwise, I would have wished Abu Ja‘far’s [Mansur al-Dawaniqi’s] face to be Ja‘far’s [Imam Sadiq’s, peace be upon him] shoe.”

Then he stood before Mansur and said, “Commander of the Faithful, I have a question.”

Mansur said, “Ask this man.”

Rizam turned to Imam Sadiq, peace be upon him, and said, “Tell me about prayer and its requirements.”

The Imam, peace be upon him, said, “Prayer has four thousand requirements, but you will not be called to account for them.” [Apparently, this means that these are beyond your understanding: you are not expected to be accountable for knowing or practising them.]

He said, “Tell me about what cannot be omitted and without which the prayer is incomplete.”

Imam Sadiq, peace be upon him, said:

Prayer is not complete except for one who has performed ablution thoroughly and made every effort within his capacity [or: attained maturity], who is neither corrupt nor astray [or: has neither performed an incomplete ablution nor turned away from the qibla during prayer]. He must stand still, humbly, and without moving from his place, seeing himself as caught between fear and hope, patience and unease—as though the promises of Paradise had been fulfilled for him and the threats of Hell carried out against him.

He should place his honor before himself and keep his purpose in view; offer his soul with complete sincerity; and see himself standing humbly before God, with no plea to make. He should press his nose to the ground, abandon hope in all else, and turn only toward the presence of the One to whom he has directed himself, awaiting His reward and seeking His favor.

If he prays in this way, that is the prayer he has been commanded to perform and told about—the prayer that keeps one from indecency and wrongdoing (shameful and reprehensible acts).

Mansur turned to Imam al-Sadiq and said, “O Abu Abd Allah! We are ever drinking a sip from the vast ocean of your knowledge and drawing near to you. You heal blindness and dispel darkness with your light, without turning to corruption and  deviation.”

🔅🌼 Let us drink sips of tawhid from the presence of Imam al-Sadiq, peace be upon him 🌼🔅

🌹Let us guard our innate disposition toward tawhid, for if we lose it, we lose our servitude to God.

🌻🔆Al-Nisa’: 48   إِنَّ اللَّهَ لا يَغْفِرُ أَنْ يُشْرَكَ بِهِ وَ يَغْفِرُ ما دُونَ ذلِكَ لِمَنْ يَشاءُ وَ مَنْ يُشْرِكْ بِاللَّهِ فَقَدِ افْتَرى‏ إِثْماً عَظيماً

🔆God does not forgive associating partners with Him, but He forgives anything less than that for whomever He wills. Whoever associates partners with God has committed a grave sin.

🌹The greatest cause of hardship, and the primary reason for the delay in the appearance of Imam al-Mahdi, peace be upon him, is the absence of true, devoted monotheistic companions: 313 sincere believers in tawhid.

🔅🌼 The tawhid of the tahlil 🌼🔅

🌹“There is no god but God” denies existence, efficacy, worship, and lordship—and so on—to all but God.

🌹Whatever we ascribe to God, we must distinguish from all else, for nothing shares in what belongs to Him—not in any real or figurative sense, whether in the external or the imagined realm, whether in divinity and lordship, beauty and majesty, or existence.

🌹If we ascribe existence to Him, we must absolutely deny existence to all else. This absolute denial leaves no being any share in it, from any perspective—not even in terms of manifestation or appearance, and so forth.

🌹We cannot even ascribe to anything other than Him an existence by way of manifestation, or say that things possess such an existence!

🌹If we ascribe existence to God, that existence is unlike any other: it bears no resemblance to any existence whatsoever. To apply the word “existence” to anything else is purely a matter of sharing the same word, not the same meaning.

🔅🌼 Apophatic tawhid 🌼🔅

🌹With “Glory be to God,” we declare Him far above every imperfection and deficiency. Compared with God, all that is other than Him is deficient, in its essence and attributes, because of its need and dependence.

🌹Whatever we ascribe to God, we cannot make anything else His partner in it in any respect. Nor can we ascribe to God anything that we ascribe to other than Him—not even existence. All that is other than God, and its attributes, are merely created by God. That is all. If we affirm existence for created beings, then ascribing that same existence to the divine Essence is associating partners with God. In a sense, it is to delimit the divine Essence by making it comparable to things.

🔅🌼 ‏  فَكُلُّ مَا فِي‏ الْخَلْقِ‏ لَا يُوجَدُ فِي خَالِقِهِ 🌼🔅

🌷 🔆 وَ بِالْإِقْرَارِ يَكْمُلُ الْإِيمَانُ بِهِ وَ لَا دِيَانَةَ إِلَّا بَعْدَ الْمَعْرِفَةِ وَ لَا مَعْرِفَةَ إِلَّا بِالْإِخْلَاصِ وَ لَا إِخْلَاصَ مَعَ التَّشْبِيهِ وَ لَا نَفْيَ مَعَ إِثْبَاتِ الصِّفَاتِ لِلتَّشْبِيهِ‏  فَكُلُّ مَا فِي‏ الْخَلْقِ‏ لَا يُوجَدُ فِي خَالِقِهِ وَ كُلُّ مَا يُمْكِنُ فِيهِ يَمْتَنِعُ مِنْ صَانِعِه‏[2]

🌷 🔆 … So whatever is found in creation is not found in the Creator, and whatever is possible for creation is far removed from its Maker.

🌹All creatures belong to God. God is not one with what belongs to Him!

🔅🌼The Oneness of Praise 🌼🔅

🌹“الحمدلله”: all that is good is attributed to Him; it comes from Him and belongs to Him. He alone deserves praise; all devotion is for Him, and prayer and intimate supplication belong to Him alone…

🌹“الحمدلله” is one of the mysteries contained in “انا لله و انا الیه راجعون”.

🔅🌼The Oneness of Magnification 🌼🔅      

🌹Declaring God’s oneness, glorifying Him and praising Him are pathways that lead to magnifying Him.

🌹The secret of beginning prayer with a declaration of God’s greatness is that, from the very outset of this intimate communion, we are reminded of our destination.

🌹 The Oneness of Magnification is “کمال الاخلاص له”

🌹Until we attain the Oneness of Magnification, we have not attained perfect sincerity in worshipping God.

🌷🔆أَوَّلُ الدِّينِ مَعْرِفَتُهُ وَ كَمَالُ مَعْرِفَتِهِ التَّصْدِيقُ بِهِ وَ كَمَالُ التَّصْدِيقِ بِهِ تَوْحِيدُهُ وَ كَمَالُ تَوْحِيدِهِ الْإِخْلَاصُ لَهُ وَ كَمَالُ‏ الْإِخْلَاصِ‏ لَهُ نَفْيُ الصِّفَاتِ عَنْه‏[3]

🔆… Perfect sincerity toward God means denying attributes of Him.

🌹“الله اکبر”: He cannot be described; no attribute, in any form, can do Him justice. He is beyond the descriptions of all who describe Him; there is no way to describe Him.

🌹 The Oneness expressed through declaring God’s unity, declaring Him utterly transcendent, and praising Him is simply a necessary way to avoid both negating His attributes altogether and likening Him to creation.

🌹 Whatever is said in describing the Essence of the All-Majestic is either a declaration of His greatness or a description of the acts of the All-Majestic Essence—not of His Essence, which is beyond description.

🌷🔆 إِنَّ رَبِّي لَطِيفُ اللَّطَافَةِ لَا يُوصَفُ بِاللُّطْفِ عَظِيمُ‏ الْعَظَمَةِ لَا يُوصَفُ بِالْعِظَمِ كَبِيرُ الْكِبْرِيَاءِ لَا يُوصَفُ بِالْكِبَرِ جَلِيلُ الْجَلَالَةِ لَا يُوصَفُ بِالغِلَظ[4]

🔆Indeed, my Lord is Subtle because of His subtlety, yet He cannot be described as subtle; He is Great because of His greatness, yet He cannot be described as great; He is Supreme because of His majesty, yet He cannot be described as supreme; He is Glorious because of His glory, yet His glory cannot encompass Him.

🌹 That is, He transcends every lofty attribute, and every lofty attribute, at its highest degree, is an act of His holiness.

🔅🌼 اللَّهُ‏ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ أَنْ يُوصَفُ 🌼🔅

🌷🔆 عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع قَالَ: قَالَ رَجُلٌ عِنْدَهُ اللَّهُ‏ أَكْبَرُ فَقَالَ اللَّهُ‏ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ أَيِّ شَيْ‏ءٍ فَقَالَ مِنْ كُلِّ شَيْ‏ءٍ فَقَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع حَدَدْتَهُ فَقَالَ الرَّجُلُ كَيْفَ أَقُولُ فَقَالَ قُلْ اللَّهُ‏ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ أَنْ يُوصَفُ. [5]‏

🔆Someone said “الله اکبر” in the presence of Imam Sadiq (AS). The Imam asked him, “Greater than what?” He replied, “Greater than everything.” The Imam said, “You have thus set limits to God!” The man asked, “How should I say it, then?” The Imam replied, “Say: ‘God is greater than can be described.’”

🌷🔆 عَنْ جُمَيْعِ بْنِ عَمْرٍو  قَالَ: قَالَ لِي أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع أَيُّ شَيْ‏ءٍ اللَّهُ‏ أَكْبَرُ فَقُلْتُ اللَّهُ‏ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ كُلِّ شَيْ‏ءٍ فَقَالَ وَ كَانَ ثَمَّ شَيْ‏ءٌ فَيَكُونَ أَكْبَرَ مِنْهُ فَقُلْتُ فَمَا هُوَ قَالَ اللَّهُ‏ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ أَنْ يُوصَف[6]‏

🔆Imam Sadiq (AS) asked me, “What does الله اكبر mean?” I replied, “God is greater than everything.” He said, “Was there anything there for God to be greater than?” I asked, “What, then, does it mean?” He replied, “God is greater than can be described.”

🔅🌼The Relationship Between the Divine Essence and Things🌼🔅

🌹The relationship of things to the Divine Essence is one of need: God is the one to whom all things relate, and creatures are those related to Him. It is the Creator who sustains the creature in its createdness. Because God wills His creature to remain, it remains; because He wills it to understand, it understands,

🌹Creatures are nothing but the will of God; all beings are manifestations of His will, not of His Essence. The Essence bears no sign and has no need of one.

🌷🔆 قَالَ قَالَ الرِّضَا ع‏ الْمَشِيَّةُ وَ الْإِرَادَةُ مِنْ صِفَاتِ الْأَفْعَالِ فَمَنْ زَعَمَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى لَمْ يَزَلْ مُرِيداً شَائِياً فَلَيْسَ بِمُوَحِّدٍ. [7]

🔆 Imam al-Rida (AS): Will and volition are attributes of action. Therefore, anyone who supposes that Allah, Exalted is He, has always been willing and desiring is not a monotheist.

🌹 This proof shows that whatever exists is an act of God—whether existence, an existent thing, or anything else—for God created all that is through His will.

🌷🔆 عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع قَالَ: خَلَقَ اللَّهُ الْمَشِيَّةَ بِنَفْسِهَا ثُمَّ خَلَقَ‏ الْأَشْيَاءَ بِالْمَشِيَّة[8]

🌷🔆 Indeed, Allah created will itself, then created things through will.

🔅🌼 Neither Negation nor Assimilation 🌼🔅

🌹 Permission to describe God is nothing but an act of grace by the Exalted Lord toward His creatures, for no one has the power or knowledge to describe Him. Without this permission, creatures would have to remain wholly silent before their Creator; no remembrance or glorification would issue from any creature, and worship would cease. Yet this permission must not lead to assimilating the Creator to His creatures. That is why God’s servants continually acknowledge their inability to describe Him.

🔅🌼 The Cessation of Worship Is Forbidden, Though It Is Not Fitting to Him 🌼🔅

🌷🔆 قَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع: … وَ لَكِنْ لَا بُدَّ مِنَ الْخُرُوجِ مِنْ جِهَةِ التَّعْطِيلِ وَ التَّشْبِيهِ لِأَنَّ مَنْ نَفَاهُ أَنْكَرَهُ وَ رَفَعَ رُبُوبِيَّتَهُ وَ أَبْطَلَهُ وَ مَنْ شَبَّهَهُ بِغَيْرِهِ فَقَدْ أَثْبَتَهُ بِصِفَةِ الْمَخْلُوقِينَ الْمَصْنُوعِينَ الَّذِينَ لَا يَسْتَحِقُّونَ الرُّبُوبِيَّةَ وَ لَكِنْ لَا بُدَّ مِنْ إِثْبَاتِ ذَاتٍ بِلَا كَيْفِيَّةٍ لَا يَسْتَحِقُّهَا غَيْرُهُ وَ لَا يُشَارِكُ فِيهَا وَ لَا يُحَاطُ بِهَا وَ لَا يَعْلَمُهَا غَيْرُهُ‏  …[9]

🔆 Imam al-Sadiq (AS): … In any case, one must necessarily avoid both negation and assimilation. For whoever says that He does not exist denies Him, rejects His lordship, and declares Him null. And whoever likens Him to another affirms Him by describing Him as a created being unworthy of lordship. Rather, one must say:

God has an attribute that is uniquely His, one that belongs to no other. He has no partner in it, and no one can comprehend or know it except Him. …

🌷🔆 عَمَّنْ ذَكَرَهُ قَالَ: سُئِلَ أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ ع أَ يَجُوزُ أَنْ يُقَالَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ شَيْ‏ءٌ قَالَ نَعَمْ يُخْرِجُهُ مِنَ الْحَدَّيْنِ حَدِّ التَّعْطِيلِ وَ حَدِّ التَّشْبِيهِ.[10]

🔆 Imam al-Baqir (AS) was asked, “Is it permissible to say that God is a thing?” He replied, “Yes. By using this expression, you take Him beyond two limitations: the limitation of negation and the limitation of assimilation.”

🌹 Permission to describe God is therefore only an act of divine grace; through this permission, the servant finds solace—not that he has truly described God.

🌹 Describing Allah with attributes such as “existence,” and the like, is merely a necessity, a way to avoid the cessation of remembrance and invocation of God. It must not lead to assimilating the Creator to His creatures. One must understand that the permission to describe Him is a gracious concession from Allah, Blessed and Exalted; the Creator transcends description. In truth, the Creator is so exalted that He cannot be described, and the very foundation of attributes is too frail and powerless to describe Him.

🌹 Among the descriptions taught by the Master are those that help one avoid both negation and assimilation.

🌷🔆 كَائِنٌ لَا عَنْ حَدَثٍ مَوْجُودٌ لَا عَنْ عَدَمٍ مَعَ كُلِّ شَيْ‏ءٍ لَا بِمُقَارَنَةٍ وَ غَيْرُ كُلِّ شَيْ‏ءٍ لَا بِمُزَايَلَةٍ فَاعِلٌ لَا بِمَعْنَى الْحَرَكَاتِ وَ الْآلَةِ بَصِيرٌ إِذْ لَا مَنْظُورَ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ مُتَوَحِّدٌ إِذْ لَا سَكَنَ يَسْتَأْنِسُ بِهِ وَ لَا يَسْتَوْحِشُ لِفَقْدِه‏[11]

🔅🌼The Sea and the Bubble 🌼🔅

🌹 Is the relationship between the Essence of the Real and things like that between the sea and a sea bubble?

🌹 Analysis:  A bubble is made up of air and a thin layer of water. It is therefore not nothing, but something. The analogy between a bubble and the sea, used to explain the relation of God’s essence to things, is mistaken.

🌹 Comparing God to the sea—or to anything else—is mistaken. He cannot be encompassed by analogy; describing Him through such comparisons leads into the quagmire of associating partners with God.

🔅🌼The Sea and the Waves🌼🔅

🌹 Is the relation of the Real’s essence to things like that of the sea to its waves?

🌹 Waves describe the sea in its turbulent states: how water molecules—that is, individual units of water—relate to one another, and how their relations shift. They are also connected to the movement and transformation of particles in response to atmospheric and celestial conditions, and to the motion of the earth and heavenly bodies. Waves tell of change in time and space: a painting made in space with the brush of time.

🔅🌼Water and Mirage🌼🔅

🌹 Is the relation of the Real’s essence to things like that of water to a mirage?

🌹 A mirage is not water, but neither is it nothing; it is something—a semblance, an image of water. It arises from the way light is refracted in hot air and from its interaction with the dust and gases in the air.

🔅🌼Essence and Its Manifestations🌼🔅

🌹 Is the relation of the Real’s essence to things like that of an essence to its manifestations?
🌹 Manifestation can mean presence, appearance, self-display, spectacle, semblance, seeming, radiance, majesty, splendour, magnificence, adornment, brilliance and light.

🌹 Is a manifestation something that separates from the essence, like a ray of light issuing from the heart of the sun? Certainly, a sunbeam is not separate from the sun; it is part of it. So if we take “manifestation” in this sense, the divine essence is exalted above it.

🌹 The essence of the Real does not radiate; creatures are neither rays nor vibrations of the Real’s essence!

🔅🌼He Is One, Yet Beyond Oneness🌼🔅

🌹 There is no doubt that God is the Creator of all existence, and the Creator has no likeness or affinity with what He creates. In a sense, the Real’s essence bears no relation to likeness or affinity; these are other than His essence. This distinction makes Him One—yet even the attribute of oneness is not truly worthy of Him. Still, because nothing more fitting or exalted than oneness can be found in the minds and hearts of God’s servants, we use it. Necessarily, to avoid both denying God’s attributes and likening Him to creation, we describe Him as One. In this way, the inadequacy of every description is made good through magnification: God is greater than even unity, oneness or singularity can describe.

🔅🌼The Originator and the Existent🌼🔅

🌹 We cannot say that all existing things receive their existence from Him if this is taken to mean that they borrow existence from Him. Rather, we must say that He is the One who grants existence to all things.

🌹 If we hold that existing things receive existence from Him—as a trace of moisture or a drop is drawn from the sea, or in any of the other ways mentioned above, or the like—we would in effect, God forbid, be ascribing to the Real’s essence a divisible existence, of which existing things would be parts. The Real’s essence is exalted and sublime above such base descriptions.

🌻🔆 Al-Isrāʾ: 43   سُبْحانَهُ وَ تَعالى‏ عَمَّا يَقُولُونَ عُلُوًّا كَبيراً

🔅🌼The Manifest and the Manifested🌼🔅

🌹 If we regard existing things as manifestations of God, then their appearing from the essence would amount to the essence putting itself on display for its creatures. God forbid.

🌹 To call the Creator the one who displays creatures, or a screen on which they appear, is presumptuous. It also amounts, in a way, to treating manifestation as the very ideas conceived in the mind. The Creator does not display creatures within Himself; rather, He brings them forth and makes them manifest in whatever way He wills, and in whatever medium He wills. Time and space are among these media.

🌹 The Creator does not conceive images; He gives them form, for He is the Fashioner.

🌹 God forbid, such expressions in a way ascribe a mental realm to God: they treat things as His thoughts, ideas and acts of reasoning. He neither thinks nor reasons; He simply knows. His will and volition are interpretations of His knowledge, and He transcends even knowledge.

🔅🌼 الْكُرْسِيَّ هُوَ الْبَابُ الظَّاهِرُ  🌼🔅

🌹 Existence (being) emanates from the Kursi. The Kursi is the manifest gateway to the knowledge of the unseen, while the Divine Throne, which transcends the Kursi, is the hidden dimension of divine knowledge. God is the Lord of the Mighty Throne. We must not reduce God to the level of existence: the Exalted God created the Throne and the Kursi, and existence came to be through the Kursi. In other words, existence falls within the domain of the Divine Kursi—within the scope of God’s manifest knowledge.

🌷 🔆 عَنْ حَنَانِ بْنِ سَدِيرٍ قَالَ: سَأَلْتُ أَبَا عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع عَنِ الْعَرْشِ وَ الْكُرْسِيِّ فَقَالَ … لِأَنَّ الْكُرْسِيَّ هُوَ الْبَابُ الظَّاهِرُ  مِنَ الْغَيْبِ الَّذِي مِنْهُ مَطْلَعُ الْبِدَعِ وَ مِنْهُ الْأَشْيَاءُ كُلُّهَا وَ الْعَرْشُ هُوَ الْبَابُ الْبَاطِنُ الَّذِي يُوجَدُ فِيهِ عِلْمُ الْكَيْفِ وَ الْكَوْنِ وَ الْقَدْرِ وَ الْحَدِّ وَ الْأَيْنِ وَ الْمَشِيَّةِ وَ صِفَةِ الْإِرَادَةِ وَ عِلْمُ الْأَلْفَاظِ وَ الْحَرَكَاتِ وَ التَّرْكِ وَ عِلْمُ الْعَوْدِ وَ الْبَدْءِ…

… قَالَ‏ رَبِ‏ الْعَرْشِ عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ‏ يَقُولُ رَبِّ الْمَثَلِ الْأَعْلَى عَمَّا بِهِ مَثَّلُوهُ‏  وَ لِلَّهِ الْمَثَلُ الْأَعْلى‏ الَّذِي لَا يُشْبِهُهُ شَيْ‏ءٌ وَ لَا يُوصَفُ وَ لَا يُتَوَهَّمُ فَذَلِكَ الْمَثَلُ الْأَعْلَى … .[12]

🔅🌼God is the One who gives form, not an object of conception🌼🔅

🌹 If all creatures were conceptions of God, and those conceptions were not separate from Him, and if the existence of the conceptions were nothing other than the conceiver Himself, then all creatures would be He Himself, for in light of the oneness of the Divine Essence, multiplicity within the One Essence is impossible. Of course, changing the words does nothing to change the meaning: whether we speak of an image, a manifestation, an appearance or a radiance, they all amount to the same thing. We seek refuge in God Most High.

🌹 If we claim that created beings exist as described while the Divine Essence nonetheless remains one, then in reality we have deprived the One Essence of its oneness.

🔅🌼God does not think; He knows🌼🔅

🌹 If we take the relation between things and the Divine Essence to be like the relation between a thought and the thinker, we have thereby made the Divine Essence dependent on thought. Thinking is, in reality, an attempt to acquire knowledge. This is not hidden idolatry; it is open idolatry.

🔅🌼Hidden idolatry🌼🔅

🌷 🔆 فَإِنَّهُ حَدَّثَنِي أَبِي عَنْ مَسْعَدَةَ بْنِ صَدَقَةَ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع قَالَ‏ إِنَّهُ سُئِلَ عَنْ قَوْلِ النَّبِيِّ ص إِنَّ الشِّرْكَ‏ أَخْفَى‏ مِنْ دَبِيبِ النَّمْلِ- عَلَى صَفَاةٍ سَوْدَاءَ فِي لَيْلَةٍ ظَلْمَاءَ، فَقَالَ كَانَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ يَسُبُّونَ مَا يَعْبُدُ الْمُشْرِكُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ- وَ كَانَ الْمُشْرِكُونَ يَسُبُّونَ مَا يَعْبُدُ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ فَنَهَى اللَّهُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَنْ سَبِّ آلِهَتِهِمْ- لِكَيْلَا يَسُبَّ الْكُفَّارُ إِلَهَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فَيَكُونَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ قَدْ أَشْرَكُوا بِاللَّهِ- مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ فَقَالَ: «وَ لا تَسُبُّوا الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ- فَيَسُبُّوا اللَّهَ عَدْواً بِغَيْرِ عِلْم‏[13]

🌷 🔆 Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him), commenting on the Prophet’s words (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), “Indeed, idolatry is more imperceptible than an ant walking on a black rock on a dark night,” said: “The believers used to revile the idols worshipped by the polytheists, and the polytheists would respond by reviling the God worshipped by the Muslims. So, to prevent them from reviling the believers’ God, God forbade the believers to revile the polytheists’ idols. Thus the believers had unwittingly fallen into idolatry.”

🔅🌼Relate it to the Infinite🌼🔅

🌹 Certainly, no creature has any independence in its existence or in the attributes of its existence.

🌹 The Infinite admits of no parts. The existence of the Infinite precludes the manifestation of anything other than it.

🌹 It is not that existing things are “in” (fī), “with” (maʿa) or “upon” (ʿalā) the Infinite. To understand the Infinite Creator and created things in this way shows a failure to grasp the concepts of infinity and finitude.

🌹 We imagine the Infinite as though it were finite. But once the Infinite can be imagined and understood, it is no longer infinite, for it has been bounded by the one who imagines it and the one who understands it.

🌹 We have no understanding of the Infinite, for the one who understands it would have to be infinite himself.

🔅🌼 Time and existence are both misunderstood 🌼🔅

🌹 If there were no objective reality other than existence, then there would be no creation either.

🌹 Existence is like time, because we cannot separate beings from time, and what lies beyond time is incomprehensible to human beings. Thus, we imagine time to have a beginning and an end, and existence likewise.

🌹 The same difficulty faces the scholars who deny God: they cannot conceive that time was not created within time, but transcends time; that the Creator of time is not in time, with time, or subject to time, but is its sovereign and creator. The same is true of the Giver of existence: He brings existence into being beyond existence.

🔅🌼Different forms 🌼🔅

🌹 If existence is one, undivided, and infinite, how can it appear in different forms—as plants, for example? Does the Creator take on different forms?!!!!

🔅🌼Does God display Himself?🌼🔅

🌹 Does absolute, infinite existence display itself—and to whom? To something other than itself? But that “other” is itself a manifestation of God. And where is this manifestation, this station of disclosure?

🔅🌼Created things truly exist 🌼🔅

🌹 If a manifestation can exist, it must certainly be other than the Essence; it does not come from the Essence. Thus, manifestations are distinct from the Essence, just as time is distinct from what transcends time, and place from what transcends place.

🔅🌼Manifestations are changing 🌼🔅

🌹 Let us consider the relationship between changing things and the unchanging Essence. What changes has no bearing on any alteration in the Essence. Change is solely the Essence’s will for things to change. Changes are distinct from the Essence, for if they were part of it, the Essence itself would be altered as they changed. Manifestations, therefore, cannot be part of the Essence.

🔅🌼If the One were to manifest Himself 🌼🔅

🌹 The Essence does not reveal itself through its infinite manifestations. That is, the Creator does not seek to reveal Himself through His manifestations; rather, one of His purposes is to turn created beings’ attention towards Him. This turning of attention is not intellectual, auditory, visual, or imaginative apprehension; created beings simply turn towards His indescribable Essence.

🌹 Manifestations are nothing but signs of God.

🌹 If the Essence of the Real were to manifest itself, it would manifest in its entirety—though this supposition can be accepted only loosely, since His Essence is one and has no parts or divisions.

🔅🌼 God created existence 🌼🔅

🌹 God created existence. The Giver of existence transcends existence. The Qur’an is the Word of God, and its rank is beyond existence. The Word of God, which transcends existence, remains the reality of the Essence of the Real: truly one and beyond description.

🌷 🔆 عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع قَالَ: إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ إِذْ لَا كَانَ فَخَلَقَ الْكَانَ وَ الْمَكَانَ‏ وَ خَلَقَ نُورَ الْأَنْوَارِ الَّذِي نُوِّرَتْ مِنْهُ الْأَنْوَارُ وَ أَجْرَى فِيهِ مِنْ نُورِهِ الَّذِي نُوِّرَتْ مِنْهُ الْأَنْوَارُ وَ هُوَ النُّورُ الَّذِي خَلَقَ مِنْهُ مُحَمَّداً وَ عَلِيّاً فَلَمْ يَزَالا نُورَيْنِ أَوَّلَيْنِ إِذْ لَا شَيْ‏ءَ كُوِّنَ قَبْلَهُمَا فَلَمْ يَزَالا يَجْرِيَانِ طَاهِرَيْنِ مُطَهَّرَيْنِ فِي الْأَصْلَابِ الطَّاهِرَةِ حَتَّى افْتَرَقَا فِي أَطْهَرِ طَاهِرِينَ فِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ وَ أَبِي طَالِبٍ A.[14]

🌷 🔆 Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, said: “Indeed, God was, and there was no existence. Then He created existence and place, and created the Light of Lights, from which all lights received their light. From His own light, from which all lights drew their light, He caused it to flow within that Light of Lights. It is the light from which He created Muhammad and Ali. Thus Muhammad and Ali were the first two lights, for nothing had come into being before them. They remained pure and unsullied, passing through pure loins, until they were separated from one another in the purest of them: Abdullah and Abu Talib.”

🌷 🔆 بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ وَاحِدٌ لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْ‏ءٌ وَ أَنَّهُ عَدْلٌ فِي حُكْمِهِ وَ يَفْعَلُ مَا يَشَاءُ وَ يَحْكُمُ مَا يُرِيدُ وَ لَا يُقَالُ فِي شَيْ‏ءٍ مِنْ صُنْعِهِ لِمَ وَ لَا كَانَ وَ لَا يَكُونُ شَيْ‏ءٌ إِلَّا بِمَشِيئَتِهِ وَ إِرَادَتِهِ وَ أَنَّهُ قَادِرٌ عَلَى مَا يَشَاءُ وَ صَادِقٌ فِي وَعْدِهِ وَ وَعِيدِهِ وَ أَنَّ الْقُرْآنَ كَلَامُهُ وَ أَنَّهُ كَانَ قَبْلَ الْكَوْنِ وَ الْمَكَانِ‏ وَ الزَّمَان‏[15]

🌷 🔆Indeed, the Qur’an is the word of God, and it existed before existence, place and time.

🔅🌼 The Bestower of existence transcends existence 🌼🔅

🌹 The Creator is above His creation.

🌹 The One who exists is above the realm in which things come to be.

🌹 The Bringer into being is above being.

🌹 To use rational argument to comprehend the Essence of the Real is itself irrational.

🌹 The only rational conclusion concerning the Essence of the Real is to affirm that it cannot be described; to acknowledge this is to admit that the Essence of the Real cannot be comprehended.

🔅🌼 Thieves of Human Nature 🌼🔅

🌹 Guard your innate nature, lest it be stolen from you.

🌹 To doubt anything outside the Two Weighty Things is itself a distinction in favour of the Two Weighty Things. Of course, doubt is warranted only when we have no evidence to refute it.

🌹 Take the Qur’an and the Ahl al-Bayt as your models for inquiry and research. Even the terminology of the wisdom of the Two Weighty Things should be drawn solely from the Two Weighty Things, and nowhere else.

🌹 Trust only those who remain steadfastly with the Two Weighty Things.

🌹 Sacred doubt is doubt directed at what lies outside the Two Weighty Things: doubt the arguments of those outside them, and forms of mysticism that do not belong to them.

🔅🌼 The Bestower of existence is beyond existence 🌼🔅

🌹 The One who brings an end is without end; endlessness is the summit of perfection.

🌹 The Bestower of existence has no need of existence; this freedom from need is a sign of supreme perfection, not a deficiency.

🌹 The Creator of time transcends time, has no need of time, and is beyond time.

🌹 The Originator has no need of time. To be without a beginning is not a deficiency; it is beyond perfection.

🌹 Is there nothing at all beyond existence? Is there no reality beyond being? Is there no colour beyond black?

🌹 The Creator has no need of existence.

🔅🌼 A Look at the Similarity Between Existence and Time 🌼🔅

🌹 In terms of how we understand a subject, existence resembles time. When we point to what lies beyond time, we cannot avoid using expressions tied to time. For instance, we ask, “What was there before time?” But “before” and “after” belong to time, and the realm beyond time admits neither. We know no familiar expressions with which to describe what lies beyond time. The same is true of existence. We ask, for example, “What lies beyond existence? What was there? What is there besides existence? What is other than existence?” In other words, we try to describe what lies beyond existence in terms of existence, just as we describe light through darkness and what lies beyond light through light.

🔅🌼 The Bestower of existence is beyond existence 🌼🔅

🌹 Knowledge is higher in rank than existence, yet, out of necessity, we draw on the language of existence to describe knowledge, when we ought to use expressions that do not refer to existence.

🌹 We neither comprehend what lies beyond time and existence nor know words that belong to a realm beyond time and existence.

🌹 Neither existence nor time was; both came into being. Both have a beginning and can come to an end. They can continue forever only by the Lord’s enduring will.

🌹 When God is described through material conceptions of Him, the result will be descriptions rooted in polytheism.

🔅🌼 He breathed life into existence 🌼🔅

🌹 Time did not begin within time: the Creator of time created it and set it in motion. Existence, too, did not begin with existence; rather, the Originator of existence brought it into being.

🔅🌼 The Ambiguous Description 🌼🔅

🌹 Let us remember that there are clear attributes and ambiguous attributes. The ambiguity of the latter should be understood in light of the clear ones. And when describing the Lord through ambiguous attributes, we must be certain that those addressed are equipped with the clear ones and can understand the ambiguity of such descriptions—for example, describing God as hearing and seeing, and so on.

🌹 God is not a spectacle; creatures are not God’s memories or imaginings!

🔅🌼 God is neither a container nor something contained 🌼🔅

🌹 The problem with those who describe God is that they imagine Him as occupying space, as a container. They picture God as a full vessel and beings as its contents. To resolve the issue and preserve the absolute nature of the infinite, they resort to strained words and descriptions.

🔅🌼 Do not exhaust the intellect 🌼🔅

🌹 The intellect does not speak of how the Lord is.

🌹 To discuss how the Creator relates to the created is like discussing the nature of the Divine Essence itself; such a discussion is untenable.

🌹 The relation of the Essence to things is simply the relation between Creator and creature, maker and made, one who wills and what is willed, the powerful and what is within the scope of power, knower and known, worshipped and servant—nothing more.

🔅🌼 Is there such a thing as manifestation? 🌼🔅

🌹 Question: Does manifestation, which is other than the Essence, exist or not? If it does, would this manifestation, standing in opposition to the One Essence, call the unity of the Essence into question?

🔅🌼 How can the finite know the infinite? 🌼🔅

🌹 Beings are enclosed within the womb of divine will and purpose, like a mother’s womb. They must leave this realm to reach what lies beyond it.

🌹 In the mother’s womb, a child understands nothing beyond “the world of the mother’s womb,” nor knows any nourishment higher or more delicious than feeding on blood. Of course, some people are like that child: those who understand nothing beyond sensation, hearing, taste, sight, touch, intellect, existence, and so on, have an understanding like that of the child.

🌹 In which womb of knowledge do we dwell? How many wombs does knowledge have?

🌹 Are we in the zero-th womb of knowledge?

🌼 Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat), 110.141 (903) 🌼

[1] كنز الفوائد ؛ ج‏2 ؛ ص223 Karajaki, Muhammad ibn Ali, Dar al-Dhakhair, Qom, Iran, first edition, 1410 AH.

[2] التوحيد (للصدوق) ؛ ؛ ص40 Ibn Babawayh, Muhammad ibn Ali, Society of Seminary Teachers, Qom, Iran, first edition, 1398 AH.

[3] نهج البلاغة (للصبحي صالح) ؛ ؛ ص39 Sharif al-Radi, Muhammad ibn Husayn, Hijrat, Qom, first edition, 1414 AH.

[4] الكافي (ط – الإسلامية) ؛ ج‏1 ؛ ص138 Kulayni, Muhammad ibn Yaqub ibn Ishaq, Dar al-Kutub al-Islamiyya, Tehran, fourth edition, 1407 AH.

[5] التوحيد (للصدوق) ؛ ؛ ص313 Ibn Babawayh, Muhammad ibn Ali, Society of Seminary Teachers, Qom, Iran, first edition, 1398 AH.

[6] التوحيد (للصدوق) ؛ ؛ ص313 Ibn Babawayh, Muhammad ibn Ali, Society of Seminary Teachers, Qom, Iran, first edition, 1398 AH.

[7] التوحيد (للصدوق) ؛ ؛ ص338 Ibn Babawayh, Muhammad ibn Ali, Society of Seminary Teachers, Qom, Iran, first edition, 1398 AH.

[8] التوحيد (للصدوق) ؛ ؛ ص148 Ibn Babawayh, Muhammad ibn Ali, Society of Seminary Teachers, Qom, Iran, first edition, 1398 AH.

[9] التوحيد (للصدوق) ؛ ؛ ص246 Ibn Babawayh, Muhammad ibn Ali, Society of Seminary Teachers, Qom, Iran, first edition, 1398 AH.

[10] Al-Kāfī (Islamic edition), vol. 1, p. 85 Al-Kulaynī, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, Tehran, 4th ed., 1407 AH.

[11] Nahj al-Balāgha (Ṣubḥī Ṣāliḥ edition), p. 40 Al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn, Hijrat, Qom, 1st ed., 1414 AH.

[12] Al-Tawḥīd (al-Ṣadūq edition), p. 321Ibn Bābawayh, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, Society of Seminary Teachers, Iran, Qom, 1st ed., 1398 AH.

[13] Tafsīr al-Qummī, vol. 1, p. 213 Al-Qummī, ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm, Dār al-Kitāb, Qom, 3rd ed., 1404 AH.

[14] Al-Kāfī (Islamic edition), vol. 1, p. 442 Al-Kulaynī, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, Tehran, 4th ed., 1407 AH.

[15]Miṣbāḥ al-Sharīʿa, p. 60 Attributed to Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad (peace be upon him), the sixth Imam (peace be upon him), Aʿlamī, Beirut, 1st ed., 1400 AH.