If He -azwj was like them...
If He -azwj was like them, He -azwj would have resembled them in the apparent, and the assemblage, and the composition, with regards to what flows upon them from their coming into being afterwards when they did not exist (beforehand), and their transformation from the smallness to the largeness, and blackness to whiteness, and strength to weakness, and their existing states. There is no need for us -asws to interpret these in order to explain these and their existences’.
قَالَ لَهُ السَّائِلُ فَقَدْ حَدَدْتَهُ إِذْ أَثْبَتَّ وُجُودَهُ قَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ( عليه السلام ) لَمْ أَحُدَّهُ وَ لَكِنِّي أَثْبَتُّهُ إِذْ لَمْ يَكُنْ بَيْنَ النَّفْيِ وَ الْإِثْبَاتِ مَنْزِلَةٌ The questioner said to him -asws , ‘But you -asws would have limited Him -azwj when you proved His -azwj existence’. Abu Abdullah -asws said: ‘I -asws did not limit Him -azwj . But I -asws proved Him -azwj when there does not happen to be a stage between the negation and the proofs’.
قَالَ لَهُ السَّائِلُ فَلَهُ إِنِّيَّةٌ وَ مَائِيَّةٌ قَالَ نَعَمْ لَا يُثْبَتُ الشَّيْءُ إِلَّا بِإِنِّيَّةٍ وَ مَائِيَّةٍ The questioner said to him -asws , ‘So, for Him -azwj there is a reality and an actuality?’ He -asws said: ‘Yes. The thing cannot be proven except in a reality and actuality’.
قَالَ لَهُ السَّائِلُ فَلَهُ كَيْفِيَّةٌ قَالَ لَا لِأَنَّ الْكَيْفِيَّةَ جِهَةُ الصِّفَةِ وَ الْإِحَاطَةِ وَ لَكِنْ لَا بُدَّ مِنَ الْخُرُوجِ مِنْ جِهَةِ التَّعْطِيلِ وَ التَّشْبِيهِ لِأَنَّ مَنْ نَفَاهُ فَقَدْ أَنْكَرَهُ وَ دَفَعَ رُبُوبِيَّتَهُ وَ أَبْطَلَهُ وَ مَنْ شَبَّهَهُ بِغَيْرِهِ فَقَدْ أَثْبَتَهُ بِصِفَةِ الْمَخْلُوقِينَ الْمَصْنُوعِينَ الَّذِينَ لَا يَسْتَحِقُّونَ الرُّبُوبِيَّةَ وَ لَكِنْ لَا بُدَّ مِنْ إِثْبَاتِ أَنَّ لَهُ كَيْفِيَّةً لَا يَسْتَحِقُّهَا غَيْرُهُ وَ لَا يُشَارِكُ فِيهَا وَ لَا يُحَاطُ بِهَا وَ لَا يَعْلَمُهَا غَيْرُهُ The questioner said to him -asws , ‘So is there a ‘how-ness’ (Qualitative State) for Him -azwj ?’ He -asws said: ‘No, because the qualitative state is an aspect of the quality, but it is inevitable from exiting from an aspect of the temporariness and the resemblance, because the one who negates Him -azwj , so he had denied Him -azwj and repulsed His -azwj Lordship and invalidated it; and the one who resembles Him -azwj with something else, so he has proved Him -azwj with a quality of the creation, the manufactured ones who are not rightful for the Lordship.
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