ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Provisions for the Journey (Mishkat), Volume 1 Lesson 23:The Perfect Scholar and the Practical Appearance of Belief in the Unity of Divine Actions In continuation of the Noble Prophet’s (S) recommendations, we come to a section regarding the unity of divine actions [ tawhid-i af‘ali ] which stands in need of exposition: belief in monotheism [ tawhid ] has several stages, the lowest level of which is conviction in monotheism in Islam and every person who believes in that is considered as monotheist [ muwahhid ] from the viewpoint of Islam; belief in absolute unity of the Essence and divine Attributes of Allah and conviction in the existential sovereignty [ rububiyyat-i takwini ] of Allah and the institutional lordship [ rububiyyat-i tashri‘i ] of Allah[^1] and also certitude that the only object of worship is Allah.

After this stage are other stages, one of which is conviction in the unity of divine actions [ tawhid-i af‘ali ]. The unity of divine actions denotes that man ought to comprehend first by knowledge and later on by intuition or inner witnessing that the real Influencer [or the only true One who causes or affects] in the cosmos is Allah, the Exalted, and there is no existent independent in effect.

(Whether this belief is or is not compatible with the issue of free will and responsibility has been discussed in theological and philosophical discourses and there is no opportunity for us to engage in that now.) As has been mentioned, there are two stages for the unity of divine actions; the first level is conviction in the unity of divine actions as a result of definite, deductive and demonstrative reasoning and knowledge that there is no existent which is in itself independent and every existent is like a connection and attachment to the Cause (Allah).

All the effects and influences and causes and effects spring from the divine Essence of Allah. Even if this stage of belief in the unity of divine actions is very important and invaluable, still its worth is not the same with the value of the stage of inner witnessing or vision of the unity of divine actions.

The second stage: after attaining knowledge in regard to the unity of divine actions, man perceives and becomes convinced by way of spiritual wayfaring and traversing and mystical intuition and vision that the real Influencer [ mu’aththir ] in the cosmos is only Allah.