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What are the origins of religion and why does the theological science that deals with them is called the science of (Kalam)? [1]

* The origins of religion are; unitheism; belief in the prophet hood of Muhammad, belief in the Resurrection; belief in the twelve Apostolic Imama; and belief in the justice of Allah.

They are considered the fundamentals of the holy building of Islam, assuming that the structure of religion as a whole is relying on them; i-e without them any lawful regulation can not be authenticated.

It is said that calling the science that deals with these fundamentals by the name of “Alkallam” is due to the first quest and argument that took place between the Ashaerah and the Muttazwlah [2]. That argument concentrated on the (Kallam-u-Allah) i.e.

Others said, that the name has been given to this science for (Ahel-u-Hadeth) i.e. (Sunni sect of Islam) used to think that it is not right to deal with the origins of religion by means of reason and rational inference; hence these origins must be derived from the Holy Qur’an and the example of the Prophet [3], and there should not be any argument about any thing that is not mentioned in them.

Furthermore, it is said that the researchers of this science were so accurate to the degree that they were discussing any quest that would come into their way.

Other opinions were given to explain the meaning of this name. Whatever has been said has its own plea and defence; but we think that the best among them is the first one for it is the most famous one among them.

What do (religion) and (Islam) that are mentioned in the Holy verses hereunder mean?

Linguistically speaking[5], religion means judgment or obedience. Referring to the meaning of judgment Allah the Almighty said:

The belief in the Creator of universe, man, and the teachings and duties that are required for this belief. Thus, those who do not believe in the creator were called non-religious.

Complete obedience and surrender to the teachings and prohibitions of the commander with no objection.

Idiomatically, the item “Islam” means the religion that has been brought by the master of Messengers (P.) [9] regarding that it is the final religion by means of which belief in Allah has purely elevated, as well as it has completed regulations and lawful judgments.

Thus this final religion has been named “Islam” for it is the comprehensive title through which, the will of heaven has been achieved so as the behavior of people in surrender and obedience to Allah the Almighty.

And whoever desires a religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him, and in the hereafter he shall be one of the losers [10]

Alkallam specialists put great emphasis on the necessity of research and inference as means of exploring the origins of religion.

* The reliable proof which Alkallam specialists give in this regard is the reason of man, for it necessitates avoiding probable harm and paying thanks to the donator at the same time.

Along history some individuals emerged from within the people maintaining good behavior and honesty of speech; claiming at the same time that they are the Messengers of Allah to guide rightly the people of the earth. They foretold the people about so many things among which are; to God people will return, and to Him will be the end of every thing, else more, He will judge the deeds of the people, regardless that they are small or big, even if these deeds were as small as a particle in heaven or earth. Being so, would it not be reasonable to avoid disobeying the orders and prohibitions issued by that power which they called Allah the Exalted blessed be He?

For if this prophecy- Whatever the probability might be- proved correct; man must be careful in inspecting the right or –God forbid- the falsehood of it.

The probability here- whatever tiny and unexpected may be- will be very dangerous, i.e. the horrible eternal torment that awaits the nonbelievers and the disobedients, thus described by the prophets.

In this regard, reason and reasonable people blame whoever behaves without caution overlooking inquiry and inspecting what the prophets told.

How could it be hat man would ignore such an important matter even though some decent good righteous people warned him a forehand? On the other hand, if a man is told by some youngsters that there are some bandits in his way, he no doubt will be careful in his way.

Reason dictates the necessity of showing gratefulness to the donator; else more we are told that Allah had bestowed his graces to us:

And if you count Alla’s Favors, you will not be able to number them [11]

So inspection is required to prove the existence of Allah and to know Him; thence to meditate on what is appropriate to show gratefulness corresponding to His graces and goodness.

In addition to what proceeded; research and inspection about the things mentioned above will draw the path way to man giving him a chance to choose between material methods or spiritual ones after deciding what is useful or harmful to him, it is no doubt an important vital question which cannot be overlooked. [13]

What is the benefit expected from studying the origins of religion especially it has been belonging to times that are long past, while we are living the age of modern technology and enlightenment, would it not be better if we spend our time in other fruitful aspects of life rather than spending it in this futile ideological research?

Although modern man has stridden forward fulfilling great achievements in fields of science and technology, yet he has retreated along way backward leaving behind him the gifts of heaven in spite of what it contains of good moralities, proper behavior, straight system of living and whatever might bring happiness to mankind.

The suffering humanity has experienced social earthly regimes anticipating that it will attain its utopia through showing commitment and allegiance to those regimes but the result turned more horrible and worser than before; so man added loses and destruction to himself, here appears the importance of the school of prophets and their role in reforming people leading them towards virtue and ideal superior moralities, creation of a social system that will adopt the reformation of man’s life be it mundane or in the hereafter. This can not be attained but through forming a proper ideological structure for the people on which they may rely-as a solid and cohesive base- when the time comes to exert efforts and labor; so fortitude will substitute indecision, power will substitute frailty, victory will do for retreat.

(Receive) the baptism of Allah, and who is better than Allah in baptizing? And Him do we serve. [14]

* If man returns to the core of his ego asking and investigating about what concerns the existence of Allah Blessed be He; man’s ego will answer very clearly that behind the world and the universe stands a masterful creator; this intrinsic feeling which emerges from the instinctive idiosyncrasy, I, e (nature) of man has its value, for it is original and it extends deep into history when man used to live primitively on earth. This feeling has never been conditional to a definite era of time nor was it subject to teaching and learning.

Yes, it is true it was diminishing now and then for some reasons but soon it would flare more clearly to occupy a space from the interests of people and their sufferings.

Then set your face upright for religion in the right state- the nature made by Allah in which he has made men. [15]

Specialists of geology emphasize this conception by proving with living documents and evidences that the houses and caves of the ancient communities of man were full of gods that man used to worship and adore.

The originality of the natural feeling about the existence of Allah never intercepts with man’s tendency to worship false gods; for the original necessity for worship is unquestionable, but the misunderstanding came from man himself, for his bad choice of a false and illusive spring to satisfy that need and feeling.

This is similar to a patient who feels a need to visit a physician to get cured, but he misses the real physician and refuges to an ignorant man who can not cure himself a part from curing the others.

The origin of the feeling of need to worship the right God is doubtless and unquestionable but man had mistaken, or intended to mistake and deviated false ways of worship, hence some people worshipped the sun, others worshipped the moon, others worshipped idols like Allat, Al’uzza, and Hubbel [16]…etc.

While others traced the way of success choosing to worship Allah the only one and the Conqueror.

* The reasons for materialism and non-religiousness in man can be concluded in the following [17]:

Sins-due to their nature-stain the relationship between man-the slave- and his Lord through the impediments and abandoning they create between them which may lead man finally to dislike Allah and tend to something else other than Him.

Then evil was the end of those who did evil, because they rejected the communications of Allah and used to mock them [18]

2-The whole potency of the Exalted every where and any time became a reason for suspecting His being- Blessed be He- For Allah is not preceded by nothingness so that we may imagine and figure out clearly His being. We recognize the smell because it was nothing then it was brought to being; but when this smell overcomes the smelling sense thoroughly it becomes difficult for man to recognize and feel.

This is opposite to the night and the day, for we realize their being because they follow each other, i, e the appearance of the night after its nonbeing and the appearance of the day after its nonbeing became reason to realize their existence; for if all of our time was night, or all of our time was day; it would have been very difficult to realize the real meaning of night and day.

As long as the existence of Allah the Exalted is eternal and nonfinal; i, e He was neither preceded by nothingness nor followed by it; therefore this became a reason for the ambiguity of His existence in the mind of man.

3-Man’s sense of the material and the sensate is more than his sense of the nonsensate: whereat Allah is abstract and nonsensate therefore His existence to the human mind became unfamiliar and ambiguous; therefore teachers and professors make use of explanatory questions to bring closer to the imagination of the students whatever is difficult to imagine.

4- The availability of atheistic theories and trends that deny the existence of Allah which used to arouse questions and suspicions concerning the existence of Allah.

These trends and theories employ the most foxy ways and methods to arouse doubt in Allah and denial of His being in the minds of people.

5-There is a psychological factor behind this phenomenon which is the instinctive bohemian tendency of man to be loose and to get rid of the moral code and the religious commitments. In order to justify this tendency he had to deny and suspect the idea of Allah, Blessed be He.

Does man think that we shall not gather his bones? Yea! We are able to make complete his very fingertips Nay! Man desires to give the lie to what is before him. [19]

6- The reason for deviation from religion and the tendency towards materialism can be traced to the behavior of some people who are considered religious while in fact they are quite removed from it, as it happened in Europe who forsook the church and Christianity because of the clergymen and the priests, who represented the godfathers of religion, made mistakes in explaining some natural phenomena; and they exterminated a great number of researchers and scientists in the field of experimental sciences.

In addition to the nature of man, is there any other proof that certifies the existence of Allah the Most Holy?

* There are countless proofs that certify the existence of Allah; it is said they match the number of breaths of the creatures and the number of the leaves of the trees.

For every case there is a cause; and for everything which is made there is a marker; and for every establishment there is a founder; so what about this boundless universe that is filled with great mysteries? Is there no cause and no maker and no founder for it?

Suppose we found a book of poetry that equals (The Seven Mua’llaquat) [21] and we investigated who is its author? And we are told that it had been written and published accidentally without any preintention, i, e some apes entered the press house took the lead letters and scattered them at random but accidentally those letters took the shape of meaningful words and lines to form lines of poetry with its special rhyme and rhythm then papers were brought, published, cut, arranged and collected into a book; then this book found its way to the bookshops to be sold!! Would any body believe such an assumption unless he is a lunatic, or a man with a disease in his heart, so Allah added to his disease? [22]

Even if we agree that the coincidence played an important role in the formation of the existence of various beings in this universe; still we have the right to ask about the resource of the initial particals which formed the universe, are they themselves found accidentally without a founder, i, e they made themselves!!

If the answer is yes, it will be a problem, for no reasonable and sensible man would agree to this; and if the answer is no-meaning that there is a maker for these things-; it will be more troublesome, for the speaker would have to submit and agree that there is a rich creator who made and created them; whom we the unithiests call Allah the Exalted much more explanation comes in Q 11.

How shall we believe in God whose existence is not proved by way of our five senses?

* It is not necessary that it should be proved to us that any existent do exist by means of our five senses, and later to believe in it; for the existence of beings has two forms.

Some of them are abstract beings that have no material form, like Allah and the angels…etc; whose existence can be recognized only through reason and inference, because the five senses can not feel or realize them.

Others are material beings that are not abstract, yet human senses might not be able to realize some of their features, for the deficiency of experimental methods, or for there is some obstacle that prevents the five human senses from reaching them.

The electron or the infra-red ray, or the Ultra-violet ray, or the gravity, or thousands of other things which science discovered and proved and in some of which we believe with infinite certitude although none of our five senses can realize them; that is possible only because we believe that non-feeling by no means means non-existence.

It is true that we can prove the existence of some abstract non-material items indirectly through the sensate phenomena, which signify their being.

We can prove -for example- the existence of Allah by means of the minute system and accurate law that governs the universe, to infer that there is a wise and accurate organizer standing behind this cosmic system, and He is none but Allah the Exalted- Blessed be He.

We usually follow the same style of thinking to prove some universal phenomena which can not be proved by means of the five senses, like proving gravity through the fall of an apple from the tree down to the ground, or recognizing the existence of electric current through noticing the lightening of a lamp.

Would it not be irrational to follow this style in fields of experiments and in nature and in the lab without adopting it in that which relates to prove the existence of Allah the Exalted and other beings!

If we have agreed to the fact that for every creature there is a creator and for every thing made there is a maker, so why do not we assume that Allah has been created by a creator and made by a maker?

* Allah- as it will be clear very soon- is not made and created like other things so that we may assume a maker and a creator for Him. Yes, He is a thing but not like other things that are defective for He was not nothing to need somebody to release Him from nothingness into being. He is the First and the Last, the Apparent and the Hidden; He is the One who put an end to time when there was no end to it. He is the One who made the nature of things when they had no nature. He is One and the only One on whom all depend. He begets not, nor is He begotten and none is like Him. He, who owns all these qualities, is it not wrong to look for His cause and resource of existence. Here is an example that will bring the idea closer to your mind.

Suppose we have a cup of water and we want to make it sweet, we shall need sugar to sweeten it.

Whereas sugar itself does not need anything to make it sweet as long as it is itself sweet, i, e it does not need sugar to make it sweet for it is sweet by itself

The same is with Allah the Exalted; He is rich in His existence so He does not need somebody to give Him His being and existence. While other creatures and things that are made need somebody to grant their existence so that they might appear on the surface clearly to every eye and witness.

For what reason do we call Allah the Exalted an essential existence and other creatures (possible existence) and the assumed companion for Allah as being (impossible existence)?

* Calling Allah an essential existence is due to the fact that His existence is not acquired by any other being; rather the existence of the Exalted springs from the core of His very being; meaning that His being in its existence is sufficient by itself, not needing or depending on some thing else, therefore His existence is obligatory and inevitable.

Hence, the inevitability of His existence is conditioned to Himself, i, e the inevitability of His existence is linked to His being and not taken from somebody else as it is with any case that is conditioned to its cause. The essential existence for the made is not connected to its very being; rather it is connected to something else. I. E. it gained the inevitability of its existence from something else which became the cause for its existence; just like the inevitability of glass- shattering, when it is hit by a stone.

Whereas the idiom (possible existence), means that the existence for a fact like man, is not obligatory and inevitable, i, e it is not a must; rather, man can be brought into being if a cause spread its being on him; on the other hand, he might stay in the zone of nothingness if no cause takes action to bring him out. The expression (possible existence) is given to all existents except Allah the Exalted.

Concerning the idiom (impossible existence); this expression is given to the assumed companion of Allah the Exalted; this companion gained this name for it is impossible- as inference will come- to assume the existence of a god and a creator other than Allah participating with Allah’s creation and innovation. Hence the idiom (Allah’s companion) is conditioned by the expression (Impossible for its being) to differentiate it from the (made) that can not be made unless its cause is found. The impossibility of the case here is not due to its being; rather it is due to another being, which is the non-achievement of the existence of its cause.

Regarding the same instance which we mentioned before; the glass can not be broken unless it is hit by a stone or any other thing that may break it. [23]

Why is there an insistence on the assumption that Allah the Exalted is an essential (must existence) and sufficient by Himself (i.e. His being), and to Him end all cases and causes?

* This assumption is made because supposing Allah a (possible existence) and He is like the rest of existents in need of a cause to bring about his being, will compel us to admit the impossibility of the being of even one existent from these possible existents whom we assumed that Allah belongs to; because such a confession entails sequential dependence and continual succession; her under is the explanation of the idea in details:-

This precisely means that A created B and everything that B created and one of those created by B is A, so A must have created himself; and so is B; for B has created A and everything that A created and one of those created by A is B, so B must have created himself.

If we assume that there are two runners ready to race, and each one of them conditioned his start to the other’s start, the final result at the end is that there will be no race between them.

Or, let us suppose that there is a man with a document that needs the signature of two men who work in an office; the first of them refused to sign suspending his signature on that of the second one; when the document holder went to the second to get his signature, the second too, refused to sign insisting that the first official should sign first and so on and so forth; the result was that this poor man would leave the office without getting the signature.

A has been created by B who has been created by C who has been created by D who has been created by E who has been created…up to infinity.

This means that any individual from these letters will never come to existence because they never stop at a certain letter to determine the start line of creation, and be the reason behind creating the letter attached to it.

Suppose we have a countless group of runners intending to participate in a running race; when the start shoot was declared none of them ran, when the first one of them was asked, he answered that “I shall not start running unless the second runner starts, when the second one was asked, he answered that he would not start running unless the third runner starts running and so on and so forth; the final result of all this dilemma is that the race will not take place at all for everybody conditions his movement according to the other, and the chain is endless and open by the continuation of their dependence on each other.

The same case will recur in the previous example of the document holder who wanted to sign his document by one official among a countless group of officials, but the first official refused to sign conditioning his action to the signature of the second official, the second referred him to the third and so on and so forth.

As long as the number of officials is countless and endless, the document will never be signed.

The same meaning can be driven if we assumed a creator for Allah who has made Him. Either the creator of Allah is one of Allah’s creatures, it will be a clear nonsensical sequential dependence; or the creator of Allah might be created by somebody else, and for this creature in turn there is another creator and so on…to infinity; this will be the same continual succession which we proved its nonsense, for-as we have declared before- the assumption of sequential dependence and continual succession will be the reason for the nonexistence of even one god from these gods, still more, even the creatures which we assumed their existence at the beginning of our research and about whose creator we were investigating will be impossible to be assumed, for the possibility of their cause owing to the nature of the sequential dependence and continual succession assumption.

We have no way to get rid of this problematic dilemma but in assuming that Allah the Exalted Blessed be He, is the creator of the universe, and He Himself is self-sufficient and He does not need a cause that may give Him His existence.

You may say: Does not this mean sequential dependence? For this opinion necessitates that Allah had made Himself, which is nonsense!!

This meaning may come true if Allah was insufficient and poor in His existence, or there was a start point from which He started. But we have already said and proved that Allah is self sufficient meaning that He in no time was in need of existence, or He was at a certain time nothing so that might need somebody to give Him sufficiency or to get Him out from the zone of nothingness to the zone of existence. Thus, Allah must not be described as a (creature) or a (case) or a (made) so that we might look for his creator, cause, and maker, or may say that He had created Himself thereby.

Why do we not assume that the matter of universe is eternal with no beginning, so we may not fall in the maze of looking for its creator thence we would fall in the trap of sequential dependence and continual succession mentioned above?

* It is illogical and unfair to cancel the role of a great potency and a wise power and immense reason standing behind the universal phenomena and their various forms with what they contain of majesty of design and fabrication, minuteness of creation and wonderful secrets of creation & innovation; it is also illogical and unfair to consider (matter) a substitute around which everything turns in the universe and the world, affairs, arts, administration, creation, continuation of life…etc. despite that it is deaf, dumb, and short of every feature of thought and sense.

On the other side all scientific achievements and research conclusions which the specialists and scientists reached assure that matter has been brought into existence and it has a start point from which it emerged.

It has been inferred by Frank Allen, professor of social physics that different parts of the world tend to reach equality in temperature; at the time that the parts with more heat lose some of their heat to equal other parts’ temperature. This has been mentioned in the second origin of the origins of (Thermodynamics) which is named (entropy) or (diminution).

We conclude therefore that if matter has been eternal, its temperature would have been equal, and as long as the case had not been like that, and matter is still waiting for a fixed day, so matter is made and borne (i, e new) and never old (eternal). [24]

What is your answer to (Bertrand Russell’s) opinion that religion has been a phenomenon that emerged because of the fear of people from the terrifying universal phenomena for they did not know the causes, reasons and secrets of them?

Or, what is your answer to those who claim that religion came as a justification for the oppression and the tyranny of the tyrants who invented religion as a suitable means through which their crimes and evil might pass?

* It is very easy to stick accusations to others and to blame them so as to achieve goals that have been designed a forehand. But investigating an idea and adopting it according to a firm base, is something completely different.

If we examine the reality of Islam, as a thought, trend, followers, we will conclude that it opposes clearly what has been mentioned above of cheap accusations which the foes of religion were accustomed to stick to it and its followers, we quote Allah’s Messenger [P] denouncing those who do not meditate on the creation of heaven and earth thoroughly reading rapidly the verse:-

Most surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and alternation of the night and the day there are signs for men who understand [25]

(Woe be he who chewed these words between his jaws without meditating them) [26]

That is to say that woe awaits the reader of this verse who runs over it rapidly without thinking and meditating.

The basic dogmatic references emphasize that man should seek knowledge, and people should praise the knowledgeable men and make them like the prophets of Israel, furthermore the real fear of Allah is limited from juridical point of view to those God-fearing people.

And those who are firmly rooted in knowledge say: we believe in it, it is all from our Lord; and none do mind except those having understanding [28]

Allah will exalt those of you who believe, and those who are given knowledge, in high degrees [29]

On the other hand the ignorants were blamed, and ignorance was considered the reason for their deviation and delusion.

Surely the vilest of animals, in Allah’s sight, are the deaf, the dumb, who do not understand [30]

So, is it proper with all that have been mentioned above, to accuse religion followers of being ignorant and frightened?!

Yes, some people-only some- might rush to cling to religion for motives relating to fear and ignorance; such, is a small stratum that deviates from religious teachings and the reality for which religion was circulated aiming to gain followers and adherents.

At this age whereat science reached its peak opening great entrances to the secrets of nature it was predicted that the ratio of religious people would go down according to “Russell’s” criterion to reach nil, But, in spite of that, we notice that the majority of people among whom the most brilliant scientists and men of knowledge like (Einstein) and (Newton) and hundreds of other knowledgeable men and scientists, do adopt a religion of some kind-regardless that these religions are realistic or legendary-.

What is important here is that those people have not chosen a religion for themselves for motives corresponding to fear and ignorance of the secrets of nature; nor did they refuge to religion to protect them from the evil of what is unknown to them and what frightens them; rather, all that, has been an expression of a natural tendency to worship a real God. But man, sometimes, follows deluded ways that make him miss the right way; hence he worships gods other than Allah the One and Everliving.

No doubt that the majority of people are committed to a godly religion for fear of hell and in hope of paradise; but this kind of fear is different from the kind which (Russell) mentioned in his theory, for it is fright from the hell of Allah, rather than from the natural phenomena, in addition to the anticipation of the paradise of Allah. Therefore there is no problem as long as the frightened and the anticipating get the proof that Allah does exist.

Thus fear of hell and anticipation of heaven rises from an understanding and consciousness because it is part of the belief in Allah the Exalted.

This is very similar to the patient who refuges to a physician for fear of illness and in anticipation of recovery whence the benefits of safety and disadvantages of illness and the efficiency of the physician have been proved to him.

The story of religion with the oppressors is needless to say. History in addition to the Holy Qur’an are witnesses for what we say, for the (Book) held the slogan:

For the sake of religion, the Moslems sacrificed floods of blood, and if the people retarded-during an era- from carrying on their responsibilities and would not object to the tyrant, either for their draw-backs or their lack of action, that would be something else.

Anyway, Islam and its attitude concerning confrontation with oppressors is something, and the retardation of Moslems from doing their duties is another thing which is not related to Islam at all; this is connected to the circumstances and complications that have drawn a suspicious mask on some phase of history, which-in turn- threw their shadows on the original line of Islam, and which Islam disavows strongly.

Yes, what (Russell) and others mentioned might prove realistic in some primitive societies and communities, but it is quite alien to the general impression of our Islamic society, as well as what our Islamic thought and ideology have been propagating.

What is the meaning of the famous saying (He who knows himself knows his God)? [32]

* This is not the only saying in this respect, furthermore there are other speeches carrying the same connotation, we underline hereunder some of which, then explain the meaning they express:-

A- In the book “Al-Durar wa-Al-Ghurar” it has been told that Imam Ali [P] said:-

“The most knowledgeable man of himself among people is the most God-fearing man”

“I wonder for that who is ignorant of himself, how does he know his God.”

“Do not be ignorant of yourself, for that who does not know himself, does not know anything”

1- We know every thing that goes on in ourselves, knowing thoroughly its conditions during happiness, sadness, hunger, love, hatred.., this knowledge of ours is attendant; i, e our knowledge directly and continuously attends to ourselves without the need for mediation; this explanation brings closer to our understanding how Allah knows everything thoroughly without skipping any thing big or small, His knowledge is comprehensive without missing a partical neither in heaven nor in earth, for the whole existence is made by Him and part of His affairs:

He is Allah besides whom there is no god, the knower of the unseen and the seen; He is the Beneficent; the Merciful. [33]

2- The soul of man can draw images for different and various things inside his imagination, in an optional from; through these images we may know that Allah the Exalted can order anything in one instance (Be and it shall be) He is the Whole potent, the Selector.

3- He who believes that all of his being in spite of its multiple parts and organs is mastered by one souls, can also believe that Allah is One and the only One, unique on whom all depend, administrating all of his creatures although they are countless.

4- From the saying mentioned in the question, we realize too, that to know Allah thoroughly is impossible as long as knowing the secret of the soul of man, which is only one creature from the countless creatures of the Exalted, is not possible.

And they ask you about the soul, say: The soul is one of the commands of my Lord, and you are not given ought of knowledge but a little. [34]

So; if it is difficult to realize the core of one creature of Allah’s creatures-I-e the soul-, it would be more difficult to realize the core of Allah the Exalted who is the creator and the founder of the soul.

* The specialists of “Al-Kallam” introduce in this respect so many evidences and proofs here are some of them:

A- The wonderful coherence of the system of the universe proves the existence of one god administrating this coherence; for if there have been more than one God in this universe; the form of creation would have taken another shape different from the present one.

The majesty of the cosmic system and its integrity astonished the scientists and led them to admit the existence of Allah, the One, the Everlasting; for how could two writers or poets exist together, equaling each other in their production, so on difference –whatever slight- may exist between them?!.

B- We can derive evidence from what the prophets said about the oneness of Allah putting into consideration that they are honest foretellers and had proved their prophet hood by clear evidences embodied by their miracles.

So, we ought to accept what they related about Allah, who says that, He is only One, and has no partner in creating and bestowing existence especially.

Furthermore, we had already proved that the Exalted is an essential existence which means conclusively that He is an essential existence in every-thing that is related to Him, in one of which is His honesty in what he says; for if we assume that Allah in what He told His prophets was lying, then this would necessitate that He is deficient, which in turn contradicts His being an “essential” existence.

This is on one hand, and on the other hand all prophets had foretold the oneness of Allah; for if there had been other gods they would have sent their messengers to prove the falsehood of what had claimed. Hence came the will of Imam Ali to his son Al-Hassan “peace be upon them” signifying what we have mentioned:

(Know my son that if your god has a partner, his messengers would have come to you, and you would have noticed the evidences of his majesty and godhood, furthermore you would have recognized his deeds and qualities; but He is only One as he had described Himself; nothing opposes His majesty, and He is the creator of everything) [35]

C- The universe with all that it contains is integral as if it is one whole body, trees can not be segregated from the system of soil and the nature of atmosphere and water; so is man, who can not be segregated from the place in which he lives, and the water he drinks and the meat he eats and the sun that rises on him and on his plantation to provide him with food and clothes; as well as the gases that form a stratum around the earth which have a special nature and density which grant life, eternity and continuation. These are two samples out of millions of samples that are connected with one another.

If the God is a real God He must be able to provide the capabilities for survival and its continuation, in addition to his potency for creation innovation and bestowing existence to his creatures; if His potency is only bounded to the innovation and the creation from nothingness without exceeding to all process of supplying elements of survival and continuation, is like the trees that He brings to life; but He is not capable of providing them with water, fertile soil, proper air, these will then turn into dry stiff pieces of wood that are blown away by the wind, and they will not survive because their God has no authority on the air, dust, soil, and water to satisfy the trees’ need.

We shall reach to the same conclusion even if we suppose that His dominance extends to the air, soil, and water; still more He will lack the sun ray by means of which photosynthesis in plants is achieved so that the plant can supply its foodstuff.

Even if the dominance of this God extends to include the sun this will not put an end to the problem; for the sun and the earth, and all the solar system are linked by a universal regime and a cosmic equation that very minutely determine the orbit of every planet. But for this system, stars and planets will collide with each other and life and continuation will come to a halt.

Neither is it allowable to the sun that it should overtake the moon, nor can the night outstrip the day; and all float on in a sphere.[36]

You may say: The gods can reach to an agreement arranging their work so the universe, coherence, and integration will be guaranteed, thus each one of them will solve the problem of the other.

The real God must be immune from any defect and deficiency, otherwise, this contradicts His being an essential existence and self sufficient; as long as He Himself needs another one to satisfy his need and to answer for His deficiency so His name should be enlisted among the creatures in stead of considering Him a real God and creator.

Assuming several gods for the universe will lead to its corruption and destruction; to this the gracious verse referred in a very solemn and comprehensive expression:

If there had been in them any Gods except Allah, they would both have certainly been in a state of disorder. [37]

What are the kinds of unitheism and what are its degrees; and what is the lowest degree that is required from every Muslim?

* Relating to the kinds of Unitheism (the Oneness of Allah and the real belief in it), there are two idioms one of which is adopted by the philosophers and the scientists of (Al-Kallam) and the other one belongs to the Gnostic people (Al-Urffa’) [38]

This means that Allah is one in His self, for His being is a “Whole” that is not compounded of parts; and there is no existence for God away from His Holy self.

This means that the qualities of Allah are not different from His self (i. e He has a being in addition to the qualities of this being), as it is familiar with all creatures whereat, if we want to create an image or add a color to something, we have to bring that thing into existence first, then we add to it the details of design or the wanted color, here there is dualism in our action; while the qualities of Allah are not as such; for His self is His qualities and his qualities are identical to His self.

And the perfection of the belief in His Oneness is negating that He owns any additional quality) [39]

This contradicts what the (Ashaera) [40] believed whereat they assumed for the self of the Exalted an existence and for every quality of His an independent existence separate from His self and His other qualities.

All these qualities-according to them- belong to Allah the exalted. Furthermore they assumed that Allah has seven qualities which are as old as His self; therefore they adopted the idea of (the ancient eight) [41]

But the right opinion is: There is no separate independent existence for His qualities, only there is the existence of His self Exalted and glorious be He.

But as long as, we have proved the essential existence i, e inevitability of- His being, it follows that we must refer every perfect quality to Him which does not mean at all that this quality does exist independent from His being, rather, reason derived and imagined it to be part of Allah’s nonfinite perfection.

This means that Allah in His actions does not need a supporter and an assistant.

Unitheism according to the idiom of the Gnostic people is something else; for they start classifying the kinds of unitheism following an opposite order to that of the philosophers.

They follow the knowledge of their hearts, which is attained through rituals of worship and adoration; by means of this knowledge they regard Unitheism of Actions as the first step for man in the march of Gnostic people, then he climbs to reach the second stage which is represented in recognizing Allah’s Oneness in His qualities. The last stage which the knowledgeable reaches in his march towards knowing Allah in His self.

To them Unitheism of actions means attributing all actions of the existents and creatures to Allah; for all causes, reasons, movements, and deeds that are done by these creatures are resulted from Allah’s actions; like the pen in the hand of the writer, the one who moves the pen really is the writer not the pen itself.

According to them this knowledge has not been attained by reason through meditations rather it is realized by the purity of the souls which has been crystallized by the light that Allah inspired in the hearts.

Unitheism of the qualities of Allah according to them means attributing all qualities of perfection to Allah; what the others carry of these qualities are only part of His manifestations.

Unitheism of self, to them, is the last stage the Gnostic may reach in his trip towards Allah; thence he can behold the real existence characterized in the real being of Allah, all other things are only reflections and shadows for His most Holy existence.

Existence- whatever multiple may be- is only similar to a single light reflected by so many mirrors, so the light looks multiple although it is only one reality:

Then, and only then, what the knowledgeable claims of seeing Allah in everything can be accepted.

It has been mentioned in some narratives that “Salman Al-Farsi”[43] reached a high degree of closeness to Allah whereas he did not show his insight and private world to the closest people to him, for he knew it will bring trouble to him.

If Abou Thar [45]knew what is inside Salman’s heart, he would have killed him. [46]

Which means that His existence is subjective unlike other existents whose existence relies on other existents.

It is the belief that creation and making are inspired by Allah not by any one else, unless Allah gives permission of making and creation to somebody else as it happened to Jesus the son of Mary (Peace be upon them). Such a case is not problematic, because it is conditioned by Allah, for Jesus [P] would not have the ability to create and make unless the Exalted had permitted that.

Which means that Allah takes care to administrate the affairs of the universe with all that it contains including man even after creating him for the universe needs Allah’s supervision to direct its existence and guarantees its continuation.

This rank of unitheism is necessitated by unitheism of creation, and unitheism of formative god hood. Allah is our creator who has favored us with the grace of perminancy, so it is wrong to derive our laws and legislation from somebody other than Him ignoring His teachings; He is the creator of man and He best knows the needs of his happiness and evolution.

He is the Only God and the Only Adorable for He is the one who brought us to existence, the guardian of our grace, and the owner of our destiny.

Man through worshipping Him declares that he is in the grip of his adorable and that he belongs to Him; no other power deserves that but Allah who created us and owns our souls.

Requiring assistance is limited to Allah the Exalted, nobody participates Him in this requirement, for He owns all favors and the life of people; and bestowal that is donated to any body else will return to Him the Exalted; this is the meaning of reading the verse:

Bringing forward the word “Thee” and introducing it before the verb (serve) connotates that the demand here is limited to Allah, as it has been emphasized by language books.

As long as nothing affects existence but Allah, so there is no reason that pushes the believer to fear anybody but Allah, for anybody below Him is no more than a method to do things.

A lover loves somebody because he thinks that his beloved owns such qualities of beauty, perfection, or god characteristics for which he deserves love and adoration; and no doubt Allah is the resource of every perfection, including His beauty; and any other beauty or perfection except His, is only mundane and metaphorical. The originality of beauty and perfection is a subjective quality for Allah alone and nobody shares anything with Him:

Concerning the minimum of the prenumerated ranks of unitheism that must be attained by a believer (I, e a unitarian); we realize it from what the Holy Qur’an determines:

And your God is one God! There is no god but He; He is the Beneficent, the Merciful. [50]

The gracious verse determines the fifth rank of unitheism; which means that the ranks prior to it are compulsory to the believer, while the ranks above the fifth are optional to the believer.

As a matter of fact these ranks are particulars for the Gnostic people through which they may attain the highest degrees of elevation and reach very close to the spring of perfection.

Hence, if the unitarian misses even one rank of the five initial ranks of unitheism he will be a member of the unbelievers clique: as it happened to Satan who used to believe in the Oneness of Allah but he rebelled, and when Allah asked him about his rebellion saying:

He said: O Iblis[51]! What prevented you that you should do obeisance to him whom I created with my two hands? Are you proud or are you of the exalted ones?[52]

He said: I am better than he! Thou hast created me of fire, and him Thou didst create of dust. [53]

It is worth noticing that Satan used to believe in the formative God hood of Allah, this can be understood from his speech in the gracious verse:

He said: My Lord! Because Thou hast made life evil to me, I will certainly make (evil) fair-seeming to them on earth [54]

Furthermore Satan used to believe in doomsday as it is clear from his speech to Allah the Exalted:

But at last he deserved permanent torment for he did not believe in the legislative Unitheism of Allah:

He said: Then get out of it, for surely you are driven a way, and surely My curse is on you to the Day of Judgment. [56],[57]

What does Trinity mean in Christianity? And does it contradict the doctrine of unitheism for which he prophets [P] called?

* Christians believe that God is One at the same time they claim He is multiple, even so, they claim that their religion is a unitarian one with no stains of polytheism.

Their ministers contradicted each other in defining the meaning of the Trinity. Their arguments reached a degree that obliged Emperor Constantine to interfere to put an end to it.

This has been related to us by Saeed Kuttub who interpreted the gracious verse as it follows;

But parties from among them disagreed with each other, so woe to those who disbelieve, because of a presence on a great day. [58]

(The Roman Emperor Constantine formed a society of cardinals that numerated 2170 cardinals, who differed about Jesus [P], then they became several parties, each of which claiming Jesus [P] according to its thought… some of them said that he is God who declined from heaven and resurrected whomever He chose, killed whomever he killed, then He climbed back to heaven.

Others said: “he is one of the three Icons, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

Others more said: “He is a servant of Allah, His Messenger, His soul and His word.”

And there were other definitions, No more than 308 cardinals agreed on one opinion and definition, so it held the interest of the Emperor, who supported those who believed in it, and expelled those who objected to it, especially the Unitarian) [59]

As a matter of fact, the religion that Master Jesus had brought has nothing to do with what the Christian cardinals proclaim; for the Trinity dogma has leaked into Christianity from Hinduism represented in the teaching that says:

It is strange that the trinity dogma is not subject to a reasonable criterion or a rational proof, even so Christians consider it one of their unquestionable worships; their plea in this is that the human reason can not realize its secret, so we have to accept it as it is.

This doctrine is a fundamental origin of religion, and if we take it as it is there will be no reason for preferring it to other dogmas, for this will be preference without a justification.

Some people might justify their defence for the Trinity dogma by reference to examples like:-

A man standing in front of several mirrors, he will look multiple although he is one, due to the reflection of his image in those mirrors, therefore the several look one, and the one looks multiple.

People, who proclaim so, miss the fact that the multiple reflections in the mirrors do not represent the man himself; rather they are only revealing him no more.

It is clear that such justifications like the mentioned above are only proofs that convince naïve kids.

I do not understand why Christians think that considering Master Jesus [P] a servant of God would belittle him, although Master Jesus himself was well known for his prayer and worship to Allah the Exalted.

The Messiah does by no means disdain that he should be a servant of Allah, nor do the Angles who are near to Him. [61]

I do not know how others worship somebody and rise him to the position of a god while he is a servant of another. [62]

Some people may tend to infer that Jesus is the son of Allah as he is the spirit of Allah according to the gracious verse of the Holy Qur’an:

The Messiah, Isa son of Marium is only an apostle of Allah and His word, which He communicated to Marium and a spirit from Him. [63]

For they explain the word (from) in reference to the pronoun (Him) meaning Allah.

We quote the answer of the Islamic Scholar (Ali Ben Al-Husain Al-Wakkedi) addressed to the Christian physician of (Haroon Al-Rasheed), who quoted the verse mentioned above to prove that Jesus is part of Allah’s self, Al-Wakkedi said:

If this verse proves that Jesus is a part of Allah’s self the Exalted; the word (form) in the following verse:

And he has made subservient to you whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. All, from himself.[64]

Must prove that heaven and earth are parts of Allah’s self Exalted; which neither Moslems nor Christians approve. This answer brought the Christian to Islam; and Al-Rasheed the Caliph gave Al-Wakkedi a precious present for it.[65]

It might be said that Marium [P] bore Jesus [P] without being touched by any man, this-in itself- is enough reason to consider Jesus [P] the son of Allah; but this is also untrue, for if it is to be considered a reason to attribute Jesus as the son of Allah; Adam would better have deserved that privilege for he is created without a father and a mother.

Surely, the likeness of Isa is with Allah as the likeness of Adam; he created him from dust, then said to him, be and he was. [66]

But, the Christians, in spite of Allah’s prohibition to them and the emphasis which Jesus the son of Marium put on what God said, by word and deed; chose unbelief instead of pure faith.

O followers of the Book! Do not exceed the limits in your religion, and do not speak (lies) against Allah, but speak the truth; the messiah, Isa son of Marium is only an apostle of Allah and His word which He communicated to Marium and a spirit from Him; believe therefore in Allah and His apostles, and say not, three. Desist, it is better for you; Allah is only one God: For be it from His glory that He should have a son; whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth is His; and Allah is sufficient for a protector. [67]

He said: Surely I am a servant of Allah; He has given me the Book and made me a prophet; and He has made me blessed wherever I may be, and he has enjoined on me prayer and poor-rate so long as I live.[68]

And when Allah will say; O Isa son of Marium; did you say to men. Take me and my mother for two gods besides Allah, he will say; Glory be to Thee, it did not befit me that I should say what I had no right to say; if I had said it, Thou wouldst indeed have know it; Thou knowest what is in my mind, and I do not know what is in Thy mind, surely Thou art the great knower of the unseen things. I did not say to them; ought save what Thou didst enjoin me with: that serve Allah, my Lord and your Lord, and I was a witness of them so long as I was among them but when Thou didst cause me to die, Thou wert the watcher over them, and Thou art witness of all things. [69]

The summary is that, anybody who joins a religion or a school of thought or adopts on idea or holds a position; he will be inclined to defend it for he feels it part of him.

Whereat every man likes himself and prefers to bring it before every thing; so you find him inclined to all of its commitments and beliefs or to what it is attributed to; to the degree that this love reaches the level of extravagance; furthermore more love as well as hatred are blind and deaf if there is no monitor watching them and forbidding them from deviating away from the right. Here, censorship is attributed to reason or conscience.

The Christians’ extravagance in loving their prophet is represented in the way they are fond of him to the degree they gave him a position of a god. On the other hand others went too for in their hatred towards Jesus and his Mother to the degree they stuck to them cheap accusations that God would never approve.

This has been the example of the riffraff or the example of the people whose passions surmounted their reason. Ali Ameer Al-Momneen [P] described them:

Two men will die and be punished because of me, one who loves me extravagantly, and the other who hates me extravagantly. [70]

The Holy Qur’an mentions Allah using the 1^st person plural pronoun as mentioned in the verse:

Surely We have revealed the reminder and we will most surely be its guardian [71]

* The Hloy Qur’an did not refer to Allah the Exalted using the plural pronoun except in some respects, when it was needed to show glorification to His Holy self as has been mentioned in the verse we came across, whereat Allah the Exalted is defying anybody who might think of altering or changing his book that has been dictated to the prophet.

Hence we notice that the Holy Qur’an refers to Allah using the singular pronoun when there is no need for plural:

And I have not created the Jinn and the men except that they should serve Me. [73]

Why did the Holy Qur’an describe Allah the Exalted as being the best creator:

Although we have emphasized the Unitheism of Allah in creation, so, is there another creator beside Allah Glorified and Exalted be He?

* Creation of things and bringing them into existence can be done through bringing them from nothingness on one hand or bringing them from another being on the other hand. In both cases, creation may be done independently without requiring assistance from any other potency, and this is limited to Allah in Whose creation there is no partner.

In other cases creation may come from nothingness or from something existent, but this is done through acquiring aid and potency from Allah to achieve the act of creation. Such a case is possible to some other than Allah, as it happened to Jesus [P] who achieved miracles by creating birds from mud for the people by the permission of Allah, but in reality this creation belongs to Allah.

Hence, Jesus [p] and others who may create are called “creators” only metaphorically, for the true creator is Allah and no one else, thus He is the best of the creators. [76]

* We recognize the qualities of Allah the Exalted from the innovation of His making and the glory of His creation. Reasonable people are accustomed to evaluating others through surveying their ethical and scientific achievements, by means of collecting notes about these works; they judge the people either positively or negatively.

The same procedure can be followed as a way for the general recognition of the qualities of Allah the Exalted.

Through the existence of life in His creatures we can judge that He is Everliving, and through the grace of reason which Allah granted to man to enable him to recognize the right from the wrong and to differentiate between the beauty of things and their ugliness, we concluded that Allah is just and fair and He does not judge people except by justice.

Thus was the case with other qualities of perfection; as a result we shall put our hand on every quality of defect that is not appropriate to the Holy being of Allah, so as to negate that it belongs to Him; like death quality opposite to which we had proved the quality of life; or oppression as a quality opposite to which we had proved the quality of justice, furthermore through proving the inevitability of His Being by evidence we could negate composition, ignorance, incapability and any thing that may attribute deficiency to Allah, Exalted be He from that.

According to this classification, the first group were called (the Positive Qualities), or (Qualities of Perfection) or (Best Names), while the opposite group are called (Negative Qualities) and (Glorification Qualities).

The positive qualities are also called (subjective Qualities) or (Active Qualities).

The Subjective Qualities are concepts derived from the Divine self because they contain a form among forms of perfection, like life, potency, and knowledge.

(Active Qualities) are concepts derived from the kind of relationship and connection between Allah the Exalted and his creatures like calling Him (the Bestower).

The godly being approves the subjective qualities, while the qualities of action express a kind of a relationship between Allah the Exalted and his creatures; so the Divine self and the creatures form both sides of the equation, like describing the Exalted of being (The Bestower, The Creator…etc); so the creator and the creature and the proportion existed between them must be realized, thence it will be correct to call the Exalted (Creator), this is very unlike the subjective qualities, for if we take the quality of life for instance and try to give it to Allah it does not demand more than the godly being as a resource to drive that quality, we do not need another side that enables the mind to derive it.

At the time we investigate the qualities of Allah the Exalted, we emphasize too that as much as we go into research and investigation into the Holy Qualities of Allah we can not reach to detailed knowledge of them; any attempt from this kind will- no doubt- meet failure for it is an attempt to know the nature of he absolute, infinite being of Allah which is impossible even to the prophets and the guardians; for how could a limited creature realize something that is infinite and absolute.

Yes, we can prove a quality in a general way without getting into details, we might say- for example- that Allah is knowledgeable and His knowledge is nonfinite; He is Whole potent and His potency is nonfinite…etc; such a quantity to prove the qualities by means of reason is possible and attainable because it does not put limits to His knowledge or His potency, rather this thesis proves the existence of nonfinite knowledge and unlimited potency.

Even the narrations that are narrated by (the people of the House) [77]which speak about the qualities of Allah would not exceed these limits thus the aim of some tales becomes clear; it is prohibiting people to investigate the self of Allah, because such a research will lead the researcher to nowhere and delude him forever.

Can Allah be described by measures of bodies, hereafter saying he is a body or a light, or He can be seen, or He is static or dynamic..?

* Heretofore we have proved in our previous research that Allah the Exalted is an essential existence in His self and qualities; and any attempt aiming to attribute defect to him is rejected completely because it contradicts a central issue in (Unitheism research) represented by being an (Inevitable) Existence. If we would have said that Allah is a body, this means that He has three dimensions, therefore He is limited and compounded of multiple parts, and the compound requires his parts to be compound.

And if we would have said that Allah is a light this will also mean that he is a body, for physics scientists had proved that light belongs to the world of matter and to the bodies. It is improper too to say that Allah is a spirit, for a spirit is created and it requires a creator; it is improper to describe the Exalted as being static or dynamic, for these qualities necessitate that a thing is a body; i.e. anybody is either static or dynamic. No doubt, everything that has been said heretofore contradicts the hypothesis that Allah is an essential existence. Thus we can interpret the word light mentioned in the gracious verse:

Saying that it came as comparing him reasonable by the sensate. As the light-by means of its continual grant reveals the things that are unseen for the seer in darkness; the same is the glamour of Allah, in creating and innovating his creatures, it is a cause to reveal them.

So when I have made him complete and breathed into him of My Spirit, then fall down making obeisance to him. [79]

Is completely rejected, for breathing the spirit into Adam [P] does not connotate that the self of Allah was a spirit which he breathed into Adam; rather, it expresses that the spirit which Allah breathed into Adam belongs to Him the Exalted for He has created it, also, this does not mean that it was part of him and then it was separated from Him and transferred to Adam.

The speech here does not signify that the book was part of the self of the speaker then he took it and gave it to Zayed.

What has been said that, it is possible to see Allah the Exalted and that it is possible to see him and that He is a body according to His speech:

And all that is said concerning these verses as mentioned above is wrong. For if reason believes in an idea and the external connotation of a verse from the Qur’an signifies the opposite, it is necessary then to measure up this external connotation according to definite reason in case the verse might accept more than one significance for the mind determines strongly that it is improper and illogical to consider the Exalted as one of the bodies or a being of the living existence… although the verses mentioned above can be explained as follows.

The word (meet) in the first verse may mean to meet the grace of Allah; and the word (comes) in the second verse may mean that the Godly order came while the Angles were standing in order, i, e one next to the other to receive it. The word (The hand) in the third verse may be taken as a metaphor expressing the superiority of the power of Allah on any other power.

So indeed they demanded of Mussa a greater thing than that, for they said: show us Allah manifestly; so the lightning overtook them on account of their injustice. [84]

Hence, we can realize the secret that made the (Kallam) Scholars insist that Allah can never be a place for events and transitions, for whatever might be, as such will be itself changeable; also they insisted on negating that He is a body for this entails that He is limited. [85]

How can we prove that Allah is alive and that He is knowledgeable and His knowledge is endless?

* We can prove the life of the Exalted through the life of His creatures; for he who bestows life to others should be alive Himself; he, too, knows of everything that (is) and that will (be); fir the creatures are but an act from His acts, and their existence have been achieved by His will, so He knows them by means of existentialist knowledge, i, e (the known) is present with Him and it does not require a certain knowledge –from His part- to recognize it.

That is only because, whatever that is less than Allah and beneath Him is only a gift out of His gifts, and an act of His:

And with Him are the keys of the unseen treasures none knows them but He, and he knows what is in the land and the sea; and there falls not a leaf but He knows it, nor a grain in the darkness of the earth, nor anything green nor dry but (it is all) in a clear book. [86]

As long as we are limited to our existence and in everything that belongs to us, no doubt then our knowledge is determined according to our limited means of knowledge; while the knowledge of Allah is absolute and unlimited due to the absolute unlimited existence of Allah Himself.

The more man is equipped with means of knowledge, the more capable he will be in collecting data, but at the end they will remain deficient and limited.

And above every one possessed knowledge is the All-Knowing one. [87]

Suppose we sit in a room surveying through a small hole in the wall a military march; we will be able to behold this procession according to the size of the hole; the larger the size may be, the better the vision will be.

Anybody who will be situated on a height and the army troops are running under this height, he will have a more comprehensive vision from above that will contain all the procession without missing anything on the spot. No wonder then if we say that the knowledge of Allah contains everything in earth or heaven as long as existence, as a whole, is in His hand and under His supervision.

* Allah’s hearing and sight are not like our abilities to hear and see, for we hear and see through the ears and the eyes which are instruments to achieve this. The case with Allah is different because He is not a body; for admitting this will determine that he is limited and deficient.

Man can only hear the sounds whose frequency is between 4%-8% micron, he can not hear what is less or what is more than this range.

So is his vision; man, for example; can not see the infra red ray nor the ultra-violet. Man can only see what his eyes see. So, is it possible to say that the hearing and seeing of Allah are similar to ours?!

If hearing and seeing mean realization and recognition through sounds and external images; for Allah the Exalted, they are possible without the assistance of sight and hearing systems because all existence- in all that it contains- is but an act of his acts that are present and known to Him through existentialist knowledge, therefore He does not need means and requirements to attain the knowledge of things through them.

Using both items (hearer) & (seer) in this way signifies that his vision and hearing are infinite and unlimited, rather they are endless:

And be careful of (your duty to) Allah and know that Allah sees what you do) [89]

This is because Allah has never changed a favor which He has conferred upon a people until they change their own condition; and because Allah is Hearing, Knowing; [90]

Either the act of creating things and bringing them into existence, thus when we say that Allah wanted something it means that He crated it.

No one can interpret the (Will of Allah) according to the will of man, (i.e. according to the same criteria of measuring up man’s will); for it depends on two points:

1- Classifying and notifying the benefits and the drawbacks of the thing that is desired to be created.

Both introductions can not be attributed to the Exalted for they dictate deficiency to Allah, Who is above any defect or deficiency.

What does describing the Exalted as the (Speaker) mean? And is the speech of Allah, new or old?

* Speaking and articulation of man are done through the tongue and the throat into a range and a frequency that the speaker himself decides while speaking, according to the form of speech.

When we attribute the quality of (the speaker) to Allah, this should mean His ability to produce a sound and to communicate it to whom He chooses to communicate with; hence describing Him as a (Speaker) means that He can bring words into existence, but the speech itself is only a creation of his creations. This is the only reasonable interpretation of the gracious verse:

But interpreting that (Allah is a speaker) as people speak is rather problematic as it is clear.

If we have agreed, now, that Allah’s speech is one of His creatures, so it is irrational and unreasonable to consider it old, for such an assumption will necessitate multiplicity of the olds, and this is polytheism by all that it means. [92]

There comes not to them a new reminder from their Lord but they hear it while they sport. [93]

Surely We have revealed the Reminder and will most surely be its guardian. [94]

According to this; (speaking) as a quality is old if it is meant to describe Allah’s potency of creating sounds, whereas it becomes new if it is meant to describe the sounds which Allah brings into existence through His speech to the creatures, for these sounds are His creation.

This conclusion compromises the old dispute between (Al-Ashera) and (Al-Muttazela) [96] about the speech of Allah and whether it is old or new for the purpose of which great bloodshed and killings took place without any result or a justification.

Potency is one of the subjective qualities of Allah the Exalted, we want to know the limits of this potency, and can it reach the zone of the impossible?

By normal impossible we mean; the impossibility of achieving a certain work or project for the lack of necessary conditions to achieve it. This is represented in a man trying to lift a rock that weighs 2000 kgs with his bare hands and without any suspension equipment. It is quite impossible for the man whose power and potency we are well acquainted with, to lift such a rock, but he can do it if he employs a poly or any suspension equipment, such tools might be considered conditions for achieving this impossible.

The rational impossible means the impossibility of achieving something in any form, for it is itself impossible, not that it demands some condition or quality to come into existence; like brining two contradicting opposites together or lifting them together, this in itself is impossible and it has nothing to do with anything else.

Example: If a teacher asks his pupil to make 2x2=5, his request will be completely improper, for however the pupil thinks or tries, he will not get this result and the reason for this is not his incapability and dullness, rather because it is rationally impossible and does not concern the potency of any potent however it might be.

After this it becomes clear that Allah’s potency does not concern things that are themselves rationally impossible. Imam Ali [P] once had been asked about the potency of Allah to make something impossible; “Can your God put the world in an egg without making the world small or the egg big?”

(Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He is not attributed to incompetence; the thing you asked is not possible) [97]

II- Can Allah create a rock which He will not be able to move from its place?

We attract the attention of our brilliant reader to the question that had been addressed to Imam Redha [P]:

(Yes, He can put them even in something smaller than an egg; as a matter of fact, He had put them in your eye which is smaller than an egg, so when you open it you can see heaven, earth, and what is between them, he might have blinded you about them if he wanted) [99]

The Imam’s answer here can be considered a deterring reply, for he wanted to silence the inquisitor and to deter him from suspecting the potency of Allah the Exalted. A clear answer might have perplexed the inquisitor’s mind then might have become reason for his delusion and deviation instead of teaching and converting him.

The Imam’s reply might mean that an egg can contain the world either by making he size of the world the same size of the egg or vice-versa, thence a hen egg may contain the world.

Once again we assert that the potency of Allah can be recognized in the normal impossibility, for the Exalted can arrange the circumstances and the conditions needed to achieve the impossible whatever and however they might be.

The case differs in relation to the rational impossible, for it is unable to exist or to be made by itself; Allah’s potency has nothing to do with it.

Can we give Allah names that have not been mentioned in the Holy Qur’an or referred to by the gracious Prophet [P] or by the twelve apostolic Imams [P]?

* There is no objection about giving Allah the Exalted names that have not been mentioned by the Holy Jurist on condition they do not attribute any defect or deficiency to Him, as our saying that He is an essential existent although it is a name that is not mentioned in any jurisprudence reference, this is also applicable to any other good quality which we may find fit for ourselves- but we should cancel first any quality of deficiency or defect it may contain before we attribute it to Him.

But, in general, it is better to avoid indulgence in this topic, especially to the people who are not religiously knowledgeable. We may stick to using the names that are familiar and well known. What has been said about the verse:

And Allah’s are the best names, therefore call on Him thereby, and leave alone those who violate the sanctity of His names; they shall be recompensed for what they did. [100]

Specifying that it prohibits giving the Exalted names made by the imagination of the people is not correct, for reasons relating to the Arabic lingual structure and morphology [101] used in describing through the best names.

Here, the gracious verse addressed the polytheists exclusively, for they showed their heathenism by calling (the best names of Allah) to their idols, thus they tended from the right to the wrong calling their idols (Al-Lat0 which is a name that is driven from the name (Al-Elah) which means Allah; (Menat) which is derived from the word (Al-Mennan) which means the bestower, in a reference to Allah; (Al-Uzza) which is derived from the word (Al-Azeez) referring to God.

The polytheists meant by this behavior to raise the prestige of their idols, at the same time degrading the position of Allah, forgetting that ( the best names) are for Allah, and every beauty belongs to the beauty of the Exalted. [102]

* The (aim) is an item given to express the purpose which may give who reaches its holder some kind of prophet, like the merchant who aims to gain advantage from his merchandise; or like the reward or moral ecstasy which the bestower seeks when he donates to the poor.

No doubt that the (aim) - in this sense- cannot be attributed to the absolute (Self-Sufficient) Self of Allah:

O men! You are they who stand in need of Allah, and Allah is He who is the Self-Sufficient, the Praised one. [103]

The aim of creating the world is the destination that Allah has decided for the creature to get a benefit and an interest that serves the creature thereby.

After this introduction let us investigate the aim that all creatures seek after their creation and bringing them from nothingness into existence.

It is clear that existence is more honorable than nothingness, so man like animals and inanimate gained this honor; furthermore he gained the grace of life which is better than death and superior to it, animals shared this grace with him, but man still more gained superior ranks of honor, virtue, perfection and elevation to surmount the rank of animals and bohemianism reaching an endless aim that would never cease, represented in reaching Allah the Exalted, willingly.

O man! Surely you must strive (to attain) to your Lord, a hard striving until you meet Him. [104]

Man’s tendency towards perfection is the peak of this march towards absolute perfection. All people –with no exception- like and seek the beauty of things, trying by all means and ways to attain it.

He, who seeks the truth looks for knowledge, and he, who seeks wealth looks for money, and that who seeks beauty, his soul will tend for the beauty of nature and the attractive forms in it, and that who seeks goodness, his soul will tend to everything that is good to inhale it and characterize it in his manners and conduct. All those, return to one axis and one common factor, which is none but Allah the Exalted; for He is the resource of every perfection, hence you find that even the materialists tend-by their nature- to absolute perfection which is Allah the Exalted whereat they do not feel it, for this reason they try to prove that the ultimate matter of the universe is old, not invented; for their nature dictates their submission to the existence of an absolute Being that is infinite, but alas they deviate from the right and surrender to passion, so Allah misleads them.

The result is that man is created for perfection and to attain the highest ranks of superiority, this can never be achieved but through maintaining the morality of Allah and the submission to His orders and prohibitions, so that man’s conduct will be a Pegasus that will take him to the highest and most superior ranks. Thus we find that the Holy Qur’an draws the aim for which man is created, being noting but worship:

And I have not created the jinn and the men except that they should serve Me.[105]

Worship is the clearest feature of obedience and submission to Allah, the servant wants to declare through showing allegiance to his sire that he- with all his belongings- is a property to his Master.

If the concept of servitude is attained, the commitment to what the Adorable requires from us, will- no doubt- be attained.

On the other hand, servitude to Allah loses its meaning and connotation if it is accompanied by rebellion and disobedience to what the adorable requires from his servant; hence the holy Qur’an emphasizes that the prayer- which is the clearest form of worshipping Allah the Exalted- deters man from indecency and evil.

Surely prayer keeps (one) away from indecency and evil, and certainly the remembrance of Allah is the greatest, and Allah knows what you do.[106]

According to this we can put every activity that we practice in our everyday life under the title worship, even if it is as simple as lifting a stone from the way of pedestrians if we mean by it approaching Allah the Exalted.

What has been said that the aim of creating man is, settling social justice on the evidence that all prophets came only to achieve this purpose as has been mentioned in the gracious verse:

Certainly we sent our apostles with clear arguments, and sent down with them the Book and the balance that men may conduct themselves with equity; and we have made the iron, therein is great violence and advantages to men. [107]

Is not correct, for social justice is not an independent goal by itself, rather it is an introduction to pave the proper way for applying the worship concept in its perfect form; which means –in turn- attributing and dedicating every virtue and good deed to the concept of worship.

Under this title, purification, education and morality that the prophets proclaimed, those are no more than canals that lead us to the spring of glory, to Allah, so that we may worship Him the proper worshipping.

We emphasize once again that Allah’s worshipping means approaching the Exalted, and getting part of His qualities and perfection in an amount that our allegiance and obedience qualify us for Him, so we shall attain the whole grace and good; for all the grace, the good and perfection belongs to Him [108]:

Surely I have turned myself, being upright, wholly to Him who originated the heavens and the earth, and I am not of the polytheists. [109]

Say; surely my prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are “all” for Allah, the Lord of the worlds; [110]

No doubt every existent has his own aim for which he has been found and which represents his perfection.

An apple tree has been made to give fruit. The stages between its prime and its death, including its greening and following are not the ultimate aim for it, if this tree did not fruit for an illness or so, it would lose its aim, rather its existence would be harmful for the negative effect it inflicts on other trees.

So is man; he is found to reach a super intention that represents his perfection; this intention –according to what has been narrated to us by the prophecy mouth- piece and (the progeny of Muhammad) [P.]- is the approach to Allah the Exalted; for approaching Him means attaining all the beauty and perfection that is situated in the self of God the Exalted.

Whatever man does between his prime and his death is futile unless it is connected to what is afore it and what is after it until he reaches the last of all destinations, which is none but approaching Allah the Exalted. [111]

O man! Surely you must strive (to attain) to your Lord, a hard striving until you meet Him. [112]

[1] The science of Kallam has no equivalent in English, but we can say it is a branch of religious studies dealing with the core of Islamic ideological doctrines.

[2] Ashaerah & Muttazelah: two old islamic sects. Tran.

[3] The example of the Prophet: the life and speeches of Prophet Muhammad [P.] Translator.

[4] Surah “The Family of Imran”, verse 19.

[5] Al-Munjed dictionary page 454.

[6] Surah :”The Opening”, verse 4.

[7] Al Fadhil Al Mequdad.

[8] Surah Repentance, Verse 29.

[9] An abbreviation of (Peace be on him and his descendants)

[10] Surah “The Family of Imaran” Verse 85.

[11] Surah “Ibrahim) Verse 34.

[12] Surah “The Beneficent” Verse 60.

[13] Droos Fi Alaqeeda Al Islamiah Vol.1, Page 27.

[14] Surah “The Cow” Verse 138.

[15] Surah “The Romans” Verse 30.

[16] Names of idols which Arabs used to worship before Isam, Translator.

[17] Referr to the book (Reasons for Matterial Inclinations) in Persian, written by martyr Muttahari for further information.

[18] Surah (The Romans) Verse 10.

[19] Surah “The Resurrection” Verse 3, 4, 5.

[20] A line of poetry. Translator.

[21] Great poems written before Islam and used to be fixed on the curtains of AlKaa’ba. Translator.

[22] Reference to the Holy Qur’an. Translator.

[23] Shareh Albab Alhadiadhar.

[24] (Usool Al-Aqu’aid Fe Al-Islam) vol.1, page 91 Mujtabba Al-Musuoy Al-Larry.

[25] Surah “The Family of Imran” verse 195.

[26] Behar Al-Anwar vil. 69 page 349, chapter 38.

[27] Surah (The Originator) verse 28.

[28] Surah (The Family of Imran) verse 7.

[29] Surah (The pleading One) verse 11.

[30] Surah (The Spoils of War) verse 22.

[31] Surah (Hud) verse 113.

[32] Behar Al-Anwar vol.2, page 32, tale22, chapter 9.

[33] Surah (The Banishment) verse 22.

[34] Surah (The Israelites) 85.

[35] Behar Al-Anwar- volume 4, page 317, tale 42 chapter 4.

[36] Surah “Ya Seen” verse 40.

[37] Surah “The Prophets” verse 22.

[38] The gnostic people (Al-Urffa’) those who know Allah by their hearts after treding Allah’s way; hence they only depend on their mystic trances to know Him through pure love. Translator.

[39] The “Nahj Al-Balagha” by Imam Ali [P] First speech.

[40] Ashaera: A dogmatic Moslem sect. Translator.

[41] Al-Luma’a, page 30. Al-Ebann’e- page 108. Consider their texts for further information.

[42] Surah “The light” verse 35.

[43] Salman Al-Farsi: an apostle of the prophet [P] and later of Imam Ali [P]. Translator.

[44] Ali the son of Al-Hussein is the fourth Apostolic Imam. Translator.

[45] Abou Thar, one of the apostles of the prophet [P] who was extremely dedicated to the prophet and his progeny. Translator.

[46] Behar Al-Anwar volume 2 page 190, tale 25, chapter 26.

[47] Surah “The Opening” vese 5.

[48] Surah “The Family of Imran” verse 175.

[49] Mafateeh- Al-Jenan-prayer of dawn.

[50] Surah “The Cow” Verse 163.

[51] Iblis: a name for Satan.

[52] Srah “Suad verse 75

[53] Surah “Suad” verse 76.

[54] Surah (The Roch) verse 39.

[55] Surah “Suad” verse 79.

[56] Surah “Suad” verse 77-78.

[57] For further information about this we refer you to the book (Ma’arif Al-Qur’an0 Muhammad Alyeezdi.

[58] Surah “Marium” verse 37.

[59] (In the shadows of Qur’an) Saeed Kuttub volume 5. Page 436.

⁽[60]^th Century Encyclopedia), Farid Wajdee, the Trinity, volume 4, page 225.

[61] Surah “Women” verse 175.

[62] This is the plea of Imam Ali Ben Al-Husain in his argument with the Christian as mentioned (Al-Mnaquib) for Ibn Shehr Ashoob. Volume 4, page 352.

[63] Surah “Women” verse 171.

[64] Surah “ The kneeling” verse 13.

[65] Al-Menar Iterpretation volume 6, page 84.

[66] Surah “The Family of Imran” verse 59.

[67] Surah “Women” verse 171.

[68] Surah “Marium” verse 30-31.

[69] Sureh “The Food” verse 116-117.

[70] Nahj Al-Balagha- Wisdom, page 117.

[71] Surah “The Rock” verse 9.

[72] Surah “The Opening” verse 5.

[73] Surah “The Scatterers” verse 50.

[74] Mafateeh Al-Janan- prayer of Kumail.

[75] Srah “The Believers” verse 14.

[76] We refer you to the book (God and the Belief), page 40-41, persian, and the book (Almeezan).

[77] People of the House: The progeny of the prophet Muhammad including Fattema, imam Ali, Hasan, Husain, and their descendants.

[78] Surah (The light) verse 35.

[79] Surah (Suad) verse 72.

[80] Surah (The Cave) verse 110ز

[81] Surah (The Daybreak) vrse 22.

[82] Surah (The Victory) verse 10.

[83] Surah “The Elevated Places” verse 143.

[84] Surah “Women” verse 153.

[85] I refer you to the book (God and Belief) page 56-65 in persian and other books of (Alkallam) in this respect.

[86] Surah (The Cattle) verse. 59.

[87] Suraha”Yusuf” verse 76.

[88] Behar Al-Anwar- volume 4, page 69, tale 15, chapter 1.

[89] Surah (The Cow) verse 233.

[90] Surah (The Spoils of War) verse 53.

[91] Surah (Women) verse 164.

[92] Translator note. Islamic ideology is built on the assumption that Allah is the Only Old; any thing beside him is new, of course this includes His speech and words for they are His own creation.

[93] Surah (The prophets) verse 2.

[94] Surah (The Rock)verse 9.

[95] Srah (The Embellishment) verse 44.

[96] Tow old Islamic sects that no more exist. Translator.

[97] Behar Al-Anwar volume 4, page 143 tale 10, chapter 4.

[98] Imam Ali Al-Ridha – the eighth Imam of the twelve opostlic Imams. Translator.

[99] Tawheed Al-Sadoque page 130.

[100] Srah ( The Elevated places) verse 180.

[101] Explaining this needs elaborate explanation of the nature of those names which is not our concern here, translator.

[102] For more information I refer you to the book (Al-Elahiat) volume 2, page 494-499.

[103] Surah (The Originator) verse 15.

[104] Surah (The Bursting Asunder) verse 6.

[105]Surah (The Scatterers) verse 56.

[106]Surah (The Spider) verse 45.

[107] Surah (The Iron) 25.

[108] But they are transitional goals and an introdution for bearing fruit which is its ultimate aim.

[109] Surah (The Cattle) verse 79.

[110] Surah (The Cattle) verse 162.

[111] We refer you to (lectures in Islamic Ideology) volume 3.

[112] Surah (The Bursting Asunder) verse 6.