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Question No. 3284 31 August 2022 Official answer by Master Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat) verified Content level: Advanced

What is the scholar’s view on considering Ahsāʾī’s position on the Divine Names and Attributes to be shirk?

Primary reference: See the answer text 42 views 23 explanatory notes and annotations
Verified answer Documented and evidence-based
Dear questioner, Master Ali Saei
Tracking code: #Q-3284

Greetings and respects,
Please share your view on the following passage. Kindly state clearly whether you agree, disagree, or have any criticism.

It is interesting that the late Qāḍī identifies shirk as the gravest doctrinal deviation in Ahsāʾī’s thought. He says: “In this book, the Shaykh seeks to establish that God’s Essence has neither name nor designation, and is beyond His Names and Attributes. Whatever comes into being in the world does so through the Names and Attributes, which are the source of the creation of the world and of Adam, and which govern the affairs of this world, sustaining it and ensuring the continuation of life. God is not united with the Names and Attributes; they act independently, and human beings worship God’s Names and Attributes, not His Essence, which cannot be described or grasped by the imagination. Thus, Shaykh Ahsāʾī regards God as an empty, ineffectual concept, separate from the Names and Attributes—and this is shirk.”

The essence and first answer at a glance (60-word summary)

God, blessed and exalted, possesses Names and Attributes. But we must not identify what belongs to God with God Himself, just as the heavens and the earth belong to God, yet the Divine Essence cannot be identified with them. The fact that the Most Beautiful Names belong exclusively to the Divine Essence affirms His sovereignty; it does not mean that the Essence is identical with a Name. Worshipping the Names and Attributes instead of the Essence is outright unbelief and shirk, because a name is distinct from the one named.

Answer by Master Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat)

Teacher and researcher in the intellectual tradition of wisdom and the Ahl al-Bayt | Soroush Bamdadān Cultural Center

Setting aside whether these statements are correctly attributed to the revered Qadi, I will offer my general view on the specific issues they raise.

Without doubt, Allah, Blessed and Exalted, possesses names and attributes. In other words, every beautiful name belongs to God. But we must not confuse what belongs to God with God Himself—just as the heavens and the earth belong to God:

النساء : 126 و لله ما فی السماوات و ما فی الأرض و کان الله بکل شی‏ء محیطا

Nor can we—God forbid—identify the Divine Essence with the heavens and the earth! The fact that the Most Beautiful Names belong exclusively to the Divine Essence establishes the Lord’s ownership and sovereignty over them. This exclusivity in no way means that the Essence is identical with a name:

الأعراف : 180 و لله الأسماء الحسنى‏ فادعوه بها و ذروا الذین یلحدون فی‏ أسمائه سیجزون ما کانوا یعملون

طه : 8 الله لا إله إلا هو له الأسماء الحسنى‏

The explicit wording of the hadith about the creation of the names bears witness to this truth: “He created a name … the names and attributes are created things …”

عن أبی عبد الله ع قال:- إن الله تبارک و تعالى خلق‏ اسما بالحروف غیر متصوت و ...
الکافی (ط - الإسلامیه)، ج‏1، ص: 111

Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, said: “... God existed when there was neither remembrance nor anything remembered. The One remembered through remembrance is God, the Eternal, who has always been. The names and attributes are created things; the meanings, and the One signified by them, are God ...”

الکافی (ط - الإسلامیه)، ج‏1، ص: 116

In some hadiths, the names are referred to as attributes. In other words, we may speak of the Most Beautiful Names as Divine attributes:

Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, said: “... The names are attributes by which He has described Himself.”

الکافی (ط - الإسلامیه)، ج‏1، ص: 88

The Lord Most Exalted’s “supreme likeness” likewise points to His being beyond description. That the supreme likeness belongs exclusively to the Divine Essence means that He alone cannot be described: attributes cannot serve as representations of the Divine Essence.

“... He says: ‘My Lord is the Supreme Likeness, far above what they liken Him to.’ God’s is the Supreme Likeness, to which nothing is like, which cannot be described or conceived. That, then, is the Supreme Likeness ...”

التوحید (للصدوق)، ص: 324

“... The supreme likeness belongs to God alone: He has no likeness, cannot be described, and cannot be conceived. That, then, is the Supreme Likeness ...”

النحل : 60 للذین لا یؤمنون بالآخره مثل السوء و لله المثل الأعلى‏ و هو العزیز الحکیم

الروم : 27 و هو الذی یبدؤا الخلق ثم یعیده و هو أهون علیه و له المثل الأعلى‏ فی السماوات و الأرض و هو العزیز الحکیم

It is not the case that everything that comes into existence does so only through the names and attributes. God, the Almighty, has power to create in any way He wills, whether through the names and attributes or without them. He brought the names into existence without any intermediary at all. The continued existence of the names and attributes, too, depends solely on the will of Allah, Blessed and Exalted; they have no conceivable independence.

If God, the Almighty, so wills, He brings something into being with “Be, and it is”; and if He so wills, He splits open a heart of light and creates countless worlds from within it!

Worshipping the names and attributes is sheer disbelief and outright polytheism!

عن هشام بن الحکم‏ أنه سأل أبا عبد الله ع عن أسماء الله و اشتقاقها الله مما هو مشتق قال فقال لی یا هشام الله مشتق من إله و الإله یقتضی مألوها و الاسم غیر المسمى فمن عبد الاسم دون المعنى فقد کفر و لم یعبد شیئا

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