ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Attributes of the Divine Being The Incomparability of the Divine Attributes In our efforts to describe the Creator and gain knowledge of His attributes, we ideally need concepts and expressions that are beyond our reach. Those terms we do employ are unable to help us in reaching our goal, a true description of God, for our limited understandings cannot accommodate a perception of the nature of God's infinite attributes.

He is exalted above all concepts coined and fashioned by the human mind. Man, who is created and limited in every respect, should not expect to be able to assess and describe a non-material being by means of material attributes and characteristics.

A reality that is other than contingent beings and natural beings, whose absolute power and infinite knowledge encompass all things, who in the words of the Quran, "has no similarity to finite and deficient created beings,"(42:11) such a reality naturally can not be discussed in the same breath as ordinary topics. Ali, upon whom be peace, the Master of the God-fearing, said: "Whoever compares and assimilates God to something or refers to His sacred essence, has not, in reality, had Him in view.

Whatever man knows to be the ground of His essence must necessarily be created. God is the Creator and Maker. Whatever depend s on other than itself is caused and created. It is God alone who is only a cause (and not an effect). "He undertakes creation without any means of instruments. He measures without having recourse to thought and reflection. He is free of all need and derives no profit from anything. Time and place do not accompany Him. Tools and instruments do not aid Him.

His existence precedes all time and His pre-eternity precedes all beginning. "He is not limited by any limit, for it is phenomena that delimit their essence by means of the limits peculiar to them and it is bodies that indicate their likes. His sacred essence does not admit the concepts of motion and motion-lessness; how is it possible that something created within phenomena should also exist in His being?

"Were there to be motion and stillness in His essence, He would be exposed to mutation and change; He would be divisible and the pre-eternity of His being would be negated. "'He is the source of all powers, and hence no being can have any effect upon Him.