ভূমিকা

The Unity of Allah 3 - Al-Shia The Scientific and Cultural Website of Shia belief The Unity of Allah 3 2022-10-12 541 Views Tawheed In this part of the article titled “The Unity of Allah”, we shall look at the speech of the Commander of faithful, Imam Ali on some of the attributes of Allah .

Via negativa Imam Ali said, “Praise belongs to God, whose laudation is not rendered by speakers, [28] whose bounties are not counted by reckoners, [29] and whose rightfully due (haqq) is not discharged by those who strive. Grand aspirations perceive Him not and deep-diving perspicacity reaches Him not. His attributes (sifah) possess no determined limits (hadd mahdud), no existing description (na’t mawjud), no fixed time (waqt madud) and no extended term (ajal mamdud).

He originates the creatures by His power, [30] loses the winds by His mercy, [31] and fastens the shaking of His earth with boulders.” [32] “The first step in religion is knowledge (marifah) of Him. The perfection of knowledge of Him is to confirm Him (tasdiq). The perfection of confirming Him is to profess His unity (tawhid). The perfection of professing His Unity is sincerity (ikhlas) towards Him.

[33] And the perfection of sincerity towards Him is to negate attributes (nafy al-sifat) from Him, because of the testimony of every attribute that it is not that which possesses the attribute (al-mawsuf) and the testimony of everything that possesses attributes that it is not the attribute.” So whoso describes God-glory be to Him has given Him a comrade (i.e. the description). Whoso gives Him a comrade has declared Him to be two (tathniyah). Whoso declares Him to be two has divided Him.

Whoso divides Him is ignorant of Him. (Whoso is ignorant of Him points to Him). [34] Whoso points to Him has delimited Him. Whoso delimits Him has numbered Him. Whoso says, ‘In what is He?’, has enclosed Him. Whoso says, ‘On what is He?’, has excluded Him (from certain things).” “He is a being (ka’in) not as the result of temporal origin (hadath), an existent (mawjud) not (having come) from nonexistence (adam).

He is with everything, not through association (muqaranah); and He is other than everything, not through separation (muzayalah). He is active (fa’il), not in the sense of possessing movement and instruments. He was seeing when there was none of His creatures to be observed by Him.