لطفا منتظر باشید ...
The Attributes of the Divine
Being
by Sayyid Mujtaba Musawi Lari
Translated from the Persian
by Dr. Hamid Algar
How does
the Quran present God?
The
Conditions for an Ideal Object of Worship
How does the Quran present God?
When we wish to assess the scientific personality and
knowledge of a scholar, we examine his works and subject
them to close study. Similarly, in order to measure the
talent, creativity and ability of an artist to invent
original images, we undertake the study of his artistic
production.
In the same way, we ca n al so perceive the attributes
and characteristics of the pure essence of the Creator
from the qualities and orderliness that pervade all
phenomena, together with their subtlety and precision.
Thereby, within the limits set by our capacity to know
and perceive, we can become acquainted with God's
knowledge, wisdom, life and power.
If it be a question of complete and comprehensive
knowledge of God, then, of course, we must accept that
man's ability to know does not extent that far. God's
characteristics cannot be placed within given limits, and
whatever comparison or simile we offer for them is bound
to be false, for whatever is observable to science and
thought in the natural realm is the work of God and the
product of His will and command, whereas His essence is
not part of nature and does not belong to the category of
created beings. Hence, the essence of the divine being
cannot be grasped by man by way of comparison and
analogy.
He is, in short, a being for the knowledge of Whose
essence no measure or criterion exists and for the fixing
of Whose power, authority and knowledge, we have no
figures or statistics.
Is man, then, too abject and powerless to perceive
anything of the essence and attributes of so elevated a
reality? To concede the weakness of our powers and our
inability to attain complete, profound and comprehensive
knowledge of God does not imply that we are deprived of
any form of knowledge, however relative. The orderly
pattern of the universe loudly proclaims His attributes
to us, and we can deduce the power and unlimited
creativity of the Lord from the beauty and value of
nature. Phenomena are for us an indication of His unique
essence.
Contemplation of the will, consciousness, knowledge
and harmony inherent in the order of being and all the
various phenomena of life, makes it possible for us to
perceive that all these qualities-together with all the
other elements that speak of aim, direction and
purpose-necessarily derive from the will of a Creator Who
Himself possesses these attributes before they are
reflected in the mirror of creation.
That which comes to know God and to touch His being is
the remarkable power of thought-a flash which deriving
from that pre-eternal source shone on matter and bestowed
on it the capacity of acquiring knowledge and advancing
toward truth. It is within this great divine gift that
the knowledge of God is manifested.
Islam deals with the knowledge of God in a clear and
novel way. The Quran, the fundamental source for learning
the worldview of Islam, applies the method of negation
and affirmation to this question.
First, it negated, by means of convincing proofs and
indications, the existence of false gods, because in
approaching the transcendent doctrine of unity, it is
necessary first to negate all forms of pseudo-divinity
and the worship of other-than-God. This is the first
important step on the path to unity.
The Quran says: Have the ignorant polytheists
abandoned the true God and chosen, instead, the false and
powerless gods? Tell them: Bring forth your proof!'
This call of mine to unity is my saying and that of all
the learned men of the community, as well as the saying
of all the Prophets and learned men before me. But these
polytheists have no knowledge of the truth and constantly
avert themselves from it.(21:24)
Say, O Messenger, 'You worship one other than
God who has no power to help or to harm you. It is God
Who is all-hearing and Who bows the state of all of
creation.(5:79)
The one who has severed his connection with divine
unity forgets, too, his own true position with respect to
the world and being and becomes estranged from himself.
For the ultimate form of self-alienation is the severing
of all links with one's essential nature as man.
Conversely, once man has become alienated from his own
essence, under the influences of internal and external
factors, he will also be separated from his God and
become enslaved by other-than-God. Subordination to
other-than-God, then, takes the place of all logical
thought. This represents a reversion to the worship of
phenomena, for worshipping an idol and according primacy
to matter both are forms of regression that rob man of
his innate capacity for growth.
Monotheism is the only force that makes it possible
for man to recapture the creativity of human values. By
regaining his true rank, he enters a state of harmony
with his own human nature and the ultimate nature of all
being, thus attaining the most perfect form of existence
open to him.
Throughout history, all divine summons and movements
have begun with the proclamation of divine unity and the
exclusive lordship of God. No concept has ever occurred
to man that is more productive of creative insights and
more relevant to the various dimensions of human
existence, or a more effective brake on human perversity,
than the concept of divine unity.
Using clear proofs, the Quran shows man the way to
attaining knowledge of the divine essence as follows: Did
man emerge from non-being through his own devices? Was he
his own creator? Did mankind create the heavens and
earth? Certainly they do not know God.(52:35-36)
The Quran leaves it to man's reason and commonsense to
realize the falsity of these two hypotheses-that man came
into being of himself, or that he was his own creator-by
testing and analyzing them in the laboratory of his
thought. By reflecting on the signs and indications of
God, he will come to recognize with clear and absolute
certainty the true source of all being and to understand
that no value can be posited for any model of the
universe unless behind it an organizing and capable
intellect is at work.
In other verses, man's attention is drawn to the
manner of his creation and gradual emergence from
non-being. He, thus, comes to realize that his remarkable
creation, with all the wonders it contains, is a sign and
indication of the infinite divine will, the penetrating
rays of which touch all beings.
The Quran says: We created man out of an
essence of clay, then We established him in a firm place
in the form of sperm. Then We made the sperm into
coagulated blood, and then into a formless lump of flesh.
Then we made it into bones, and then clothed the bones
with flesh. Finally We brought forth a new creation. How
well did God create, the best of all creators!
(23:12-14)
When the foetus is ready to receive shape and
form all the cells of the eyes, the ear, the brain,
and the other organs, start to function and begin their
ceaseless activity. This is the truth to which the Quran
is directing men's attention. It, then, poses to man the
question of whether all these wondrous changes are
rationally compatible with the hypothesis that there is
no God.
Is it not rather the case that phenomena such as these
prove and demonstrate with the utmost emphasis, the
need for a plan, a design, a guiding hand inspired by
conscious will? Is it at all possible that the cells of
the body should learn their functions, pursue their aim
in a precise and orderly fashion, and crystallize so
miraculously in the world of being, without there being a
conscious and powerful being to instruct them?
The Quran answers this question as follows: He
it is Who creates and brings forth (the totality of
parts), Who separates (the parts belonging to each
organ), and Who gives form (to different aspects).(59:24)
The Quran describes every sense phenomenon that man
sees around him as something calling for reflection and
the drawing of conclusions. Your God is but one
God. There is no god other than Him, Compassionate and
Merciful In the creation of the heavens and the earth, in
the alternation of night and day, in the ships that ply
the seas to the benefit of man, in the water sent down
from the heavens to revive the earth after its death, in
the different species of animals scattered across the
earth in the rotation of the winds, in the clouds
that are subordinate to God's command between heaven and
earth-in all of this, there are signs for men who use
their intellects.(2:163-164) Tell men
to reflect with care and see what things the heavens and
the earth contain.(10:10)
The Quran also mentions the study of human history and
the peoples of the past with all the changes they have
undergone, as a special source of knowledge. It invites
man to pay heed, in order to discover the truth, to the
triumphs and defeats, the glories and humiliations, the
fortune and misfortune, of various ancient peoples, so
that by learning the orderly and precise laws of history,
he will be able to benefit himself and his society by
aligning the history of his own age with those laws.
The Quran thus proclaims: Even before your
time, certain laws and norms were in force, so travel and
examine the historical traces left by past peoples, to
see what urn the fate of those who denied the truths of
revelation and the promises of God.(3:137) How
many were those powerful ones whom We destroyed in their
cities on account of their oppression and wrongdoing, and
We made another people to be their heirs.(21:11)
The Quran also recognizes man's inner world, which it
expressed by the word anfus (souls),
as a source for fruitful reflection and the discovery of
truth. It points out its importance as follows: We
make our signs and indications entirely manifest in the
world and in the souls and inner beings of Our servants
so that it should be clear that God is the True.(41:53)
On the face of the earth there are signs fur the
possessors of certainty, and also in your own selves;
will you not see?(51:20-21)
In other words, there is an abundant source of
knowledge in the beauty and symmetry of the human body,
with all of its organs and capacities, its actions and
reactions, its precise and subtle mechanisms, its varied
energies and instincts, its perceptions, feelings and
sensations, both animal and human, and most especially in
the astounding capacity of thought and awareness with
which man has been entrusted-a capacity which still
remains largely unknown, for man has taken only a few
steps in studying this invisible power and its
relationship with his material body.
The Quran proclaims that it is sufficient to reflect
on and examine your own self in order to be guided to the
eternal, infinite source that is free of all need, has
unlimited knowledge, skill and power, and a feeble
reflection of which is manifest in your being. You will
then know that it is that infinite reality which has thus
brought together in one place so fruitful a compound of
elements and brought it forth onto the plain of
existence.
Given the existence of such vivid indications and
decisive proofs, placed at your disposal and within your
own being for you to seek the knowledge of God, no excuse
will be accepted from you for misguidance and denial.
The Quran also applies the method of negation and
affirmation to the question of God's attributes. Thus, it
describes the attributes that the essence of the Creator
possesses as affirmative attributes. Among
them are knowledge, power, will, the fact that His
existence was not preceded by non-existence and that His
being has no beginning, and the fact that all the motions
of the world derive from His will and His power.
The Quran says: He is God, the One other than
Whom there is no god, the knower of the hidden and the
manifest, the Compassionate, the Merciful. He is God, the
One other than Whom there is no god, the Commander, the
All-powerful, Pure and Without Defect, the Bestower of
Safety, the Protector, the Precious; the Mighty, the
Sublime, the Most Elevated. Exempt and purified be He
from the partners which they ascribe to Him.(59:22-23)
The negative attributes are those from
which God is free. They include the fact that God is not
a body and has no place; His sacred being has no partner
or like; He is not a prisoner to the limitations set up
by the bounds of the senses; He neither begets nor is
begotten; there is neither change nor motion within His
essence, for He is absolute perfection; and He does not
delegate the task of creation to anyone.
The Quran says: O Messenger, say: He is
God, the One, the God Who is free of need for all things
and of Whom all beings stand in need. No one is His
offspring, and He is not the offspring of anyone, and He
has no like or parallel.(12:14) Pure
and exalted is thy Lord, God the Powerful and Unique, Who
is pure of what men in their ignorance ascribe to
Him.(37:80)
Human logic, which inevitably thinks in terms of
limited categories, is incapable of sitting in judgment
on divinity, because we must admit that it is impossible
to perceive the ultimate ground of that being for whom no
observable or comprehensible analogue or parallel exists
in the world of creation. The most profound schools of
thought and the greatest methods of reflection here fall
prey to bewilderment.
Just as all existent beings must lead back to an
essence with which existence is identical, to an
independent being on which all other beings depend, so,
too, they must derive from a source of life, power and
knowledge, from the infinite being of which all these
attributes and qualities surge forth in abundance.
The Conditions for an Ideal Object of Worship
The Lord of the World, as presented in the Quran,
possesses all the necessary conditions of an ideal object
of worship. He is the creator of love and all forms of
beauty, the originator of all forms of power and energy.
He is a vast ocean on the slightest ripple of whose
surface the swimmer of the intellect is tossed around
like a plaything. It is He Who preserves the heavens from
falling and the earth from collapsing. If, for an
instant, He closes His eye of mercy or averts it from
