However [such an assumption] does not give smooth ( salis ) meaning...

However [such an assumption] does not give smooth ( salis ) meaning, nor does it achieve the purpose. Because the purpose is not to affirm the eternity of [God’s] Lordship, but to affirm the pre-eternity of His Knowledge and its precedence over the knowable. It may be said the phrase ربّنا is in the nominative case ( marfu’ ) and is appositive to the noun ( ism ) of زال with the predicate ( khabar ) being omitted ( mahdhuf ), as indicated by the phrase والعلم ذاته.

Assuming the ellipsis, the sentence would be like this: لَمْ يَزَلِ اللهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ رَبَّنَا وَالعِلْمُ ذَاتُهُ. And it is possible that زال is a perfect verb ( tammah ), sufficing with the nominative case, on the basis of which it would be زال يزول not زال يزال for the past tense of يزال is always defective ( naqis ), contrary to يزول which is always perfect. And in the phrase وكان المعلوم, كان is here complete, meaning that ‘when He created the things and the knowable came into existence.

In the phrase محدثة بالفعل it is probable that the expression بالفعل is opposed to بالقوة and maybe in the sense of verbal noun, meaning that an Attribute that is realized with creation cannot be God’s Attribute. There are some noble topics that have been referred to in this hadith , and we shall discuss some of them to an extent appropriate to this discourse.

The Identity of God’s Attributes with His Essence It should be known that there is a reference in this noble tradition to God’s Sacred Essence being identical to His true Attributes of perfection, like Knowledge, Power, Hearing and Sight. This is one of the important topics (of philosophy and kalam ) whose elaborate treatment is, however, outside the scope of this treatise.

Here we will refer to the true position in this regard in accordance with firm metaphysical proofs’ of the philosophers ( hukama’ ) and the way of the people of gnosis ( ahl al-ma’ri fat ) .

It should -be known that it has been clearly established in its appropriate place that that which belongs to the categories of perfection and beauty derives from the mainspring of existence and the root of the reality of being, and that in the realm of existence there is no more than one noble principle, which is the mainspring of all perfections and the source of all goodness, and that is the Reality of Being ( haqiqat al-wujud ) .

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