To Deny Him Attributes III

when the question of Divine Unity is raised in religious discourse, it is taken to include many topics incluring the belief in the oneness of the essence, so, too, the compounding of the attributes and the distinction between essence and attributes is totally excluded with respect to unity of the attributes. Distinctness and differentiation derive from limitation. If in the world of nature we look at a body through different coloured pieces of glass, that body will appear to us in a succession of different colours. Similarly, when we contemplate the unique divine essence with our reason, we sometimes ascribe knowledge to that infinite being with regard to the fact that all creatures are at all times present before Him; we then say that He is all-knowing. At other times we are aware of His ability to create all things, and we hen speak of His being all-powerful.

So, when we percieve through these various apertres, the different attributes which appear to resemble the properties of our limited beings, we attempt to separate them from His infinite essence. Objectively, however, all the concepts conveyed by the different attributes have a single existence and convey a single reality, a reality that is free from all defect and deficiency, that posesses all perfections such as power, mercy, knowledge, blessedness, wisdom and splendor.

"God and His attributes" by Sayyid Mujtaba Musavi Lari

You cannot think of Allah as a compound or collection of several separate attributes without denying Him unity. You can't imagine a part of Him labelled "Mercy" and another "Power" or another "Seeing" and consider those separately, any more than it makes sense to say that you can separate out the part called "green" from the body of a blade of grass, or the "negative" from an electron. It is an integral part of its entire nature, and inseperably combined in the whole, and by having abstract knowledge of that one part you can't get knowledge of the whole.

Due to our human limitations we think of different aspects of Him and get tempted to think that they are separate parts of His character. What we fail to realise is that each time we notice something different, we are looking towards the same, single, reality but through a different angle: using a different coloured piece of glass. If you look at a yellow flower through some red glass, it looks red, and its leaves look brown. If you use a green piece the leaves look green, but the flower looks like a lighter shade of green. Using blue glass the flower is a darker green, and the leaves are bluish. Would it make sense to say that there are three flowers, one red, and two different greens, which exist in the same body, and to manifest each one you have to look through a different piece of glass? can we separate the red flower out in our thinking from the green ones? Would we ever really understand what the truth about that flower was if we insisted on this thinking, separating out parts for it because of our patchy and limited knowledge of its real nature?

It is a partial image we are getting each time of the same one reality, and trying to build them up into a view of the whole by adding all these parts together isnt the answer. instead we need to realise that He is One, and that all of the partial bits of information we have about Him: such as Him being the Creator, the Most Powerful, the Just, the Compassionate... are all aspects of the same inseperable one reality. We need to deny the attributes as something "separate" within Him that manifest on certain occasions, or we will never be able to approach knowledge of Him.

... the renown scholar al-Kulaini al-Razi cites derivation of the word "Allah", the Imam said to him: "O Hisham" the proper noun "Allah" is derived from "ilah"; "the Creator" requires the existence of creation [to testify to His being its creator]. This is a noun, not an adjective. Anyone who worships a name without worshipping what the name stands for is actually committing kufr, apostacy; in reality he does not worship anything at all. One who worships the name and the meaning is also commiting kufr, for he will be worshipping two. Only one who worships the meaning without the name is in line with the concept of Tawhid (Unity of God). Have you understood all of this, O Hisham?" He answered him in the affirmative, requesting to provide more explanations, wherupon the Imam said, "There are ninety nine attributes of Allah. Had each attribute been the same as it describes, each one of them would have been a god by itself. But,"Allah" is the meaning one deducts once he becomes familliar with all of these attributes. They all, O Hisham, in their collective sense, are not the same as He himself. Bread is something you eat. Water is something you drink. A garment is something you put on. And fire is something that burns. Do you understand all of this, O Hisham, fully enough so that you would promote it and fight the enemies of Allah for its sake?!" Hisham answered him in the affirmative, whereupon the Imam added, "May Allah grant you thereby benefits, and may he keep your feet firm thereupon, O Hisham!"

"The Concept of God in Islam" by Yaseen T al-Jibouri

* * *

11 June 2007 ~~ I'm back.

to deny Him attributes II

to add words to the image: a section from tafsir Nahjul Balaghah.

* * *

After pointing out the essentials of Divine knowledge Amir al-mu'minin has described its important constituents and conditions. He has held those stages of such knowledge which people generally regard as the point of highest approach to be insufficient.

1. He says that its first stage is that with the natural sense of search for the unknown and the guidance of conscience or on hearing from the followers of religions an image of the Unseen Being known as Allah is formed in the mind. This image in fact is the forerunner of the obligation to thinking and reflection and to seeking His knowledge... one who is moved by the power of this image goes further and considers thinking and reflection necessary.

2. In this way one reaches the next stage in the attainment of Divine knowledge, namely to search for the Creator through diversification of creation and species of creatures, because every picture is a solid and inflexible guide to the existence of its painter and every effect to the action of its cause... after observing all that exists in the world and the regulated system of the entire creation no one can help concluding that there is a Creator for this world of diversities because existence cannot come out of non-existence, nor can existence sprout forth from nothingness... But this stage would also be insufficient if this testimony in favour of Allah is tarnished by belief in the divinity of some other deity.

3. The third stage is that His existence should be acknowledged along with belief in Unity and Oneness. Without this the testimony to Allah's existence cannot be complete because if more gods are believed in He would not be One whereas it is necessary that He should be One... In short there is no way but to acknowledge Him as One because in believing in numerous creators there remains no possibility of the existence of any other thing, and destruction proves implicit for the earth, the sky and everything in creation. Allah the glorified has expressed this argument in the following words:

"Had there been in (the heavens and the earth [other] ) gods except Allah, they both had been in disorder. . ." (Qur'an, 21:22).

4. The fourth stage is that Allah should be regarded free of all defects and deficiencies... because there can be no deficiency or defect in the perfect Being nor can anyone be deemed like Him because all these attributes bring down a being from the high position of the Creator to the low position of the created. That is why along with Unity, Allah has held purity from deficiency of equal importance.

5. The fifth stage of completing His Knowledge is that attributes should not be put in Him from outside lest there be duality in His Oneness -- To Deny Him Attributes -- because His Being is not a combination of essence and form so that attribute may cling to Him like smell in the flowers or brightness in the stars. Rather, He is the fountain head of all attributes and needs no medium for manifestation of His perfect Attributes... If to Him is attributed the power to listen or to see it is because the cohesion of the entire creation and its administration cannot be done without hearing or seeing but the existence of these attributes in Him cannot be held to be in the same way as in the creation namely that He should be capable to know only after He acquires knowledge or He should be powerful and strong only after energy runs into His limbs. Taking attributes as separate from His Being would connote duality and where there is duality unity disappears.

That is how Amir al-mu'minin has rejected the idea of attributes being addition to His Being, presented Unity in its true significance, and did not allow Unity to be tainted with stains of multiplicity. This does not mean that adjectives cannot at all be attributed to Him...every nook and comer in the entire existence is brimming with His attributes and every particle of creation stands witness that He has knowledge, He is powerful, He hears, He sees. He nurtures under His care and allows growth under His mercy.

If we regard attributes distinct from Self in this manner there would be two alternatives; either the attributes must have existed in Him from ever or they must have occurred later. In the first case we have to recognise as many eternal objects as the attributes which all will share with Him in being eternal, but "Allah is above what the people deem Him to have equals." In the second case in addition to subjecting Him to the alternations it would also mean that before the acquiring of the attributes He was neither scient, nor powerful, nor hearer nor beholder and this runs counter to the basic tenet of Islam.

* * *

"Our Allah the Glorified, the Magnificent has ever had knowledge as His Self even though there was nothing to know, sight as His Self even though there was nothing to know, sight as His Self even though there was nothing to behold, hearing as His Self even though there was nothing to hear, and Potence as His Self even though there was nothing to be under His Potence. When He created the things and the object of knowledge came into existence His knowledge became related to the known, hearing related to the heard, sight related to the seen, and potence related to its object."

-- narrated from Imam Jafar as Sadiq

* * *

with thanks to Al-Islam.org

footnote 1

Islam

“

Have you fully realised what Islam is?

It is indeed a religion founded on truth.

It is such a fountain-head of learning

that several streams of wisdom

and knowledge flow from it.

It is such a lamp

that several lamps will be lighted from it.

It is a lofty beacon

illuminating the path of Allah.

It is such a set of principles and beliefs

that it will satisfy every seeker of truth and reality.

Know you all!

that Allah has made Islam the most sublime path

for the attainment of His supreme pleasure.

He has favoured it with

noble precepts

exalted principles

undeniable wisdom

undoubtable arguments

and unchallengeable supremacy.

It is up to you to maintain the eminence

and dignity granted to it by the Lord,

to follow it sincerely,

to do justice in its articles of faith and belief,

to obey implicitly its tenets and orders

and to give it the proper place in your lives.

”

* * *

Nahjul Balaghah, Imam Ali (as)

with thanks to Al-Khoei Foundation.

to deny Him attributes...

from nahjul balaghah, sermon 1. Click on the image to open it in a new window.

* the level "all humans, here & below" refers primarily to those who are not athiest, all humans who have an innate appreciation for some Higher Power who has control. Athiests too have this, but override it -- they refuse to acknowledge it despite the lack of a cohesive alternative. Often they will deify the "laws of nature", science or various other concepts as the source of the order in the world, without accepting a higher creator of these rules. Whether or not this indirectly counts as acknowledging Him remains a point of debate.

* * *

(c) March 2007