God and His Attributes - BYISLAM

Is it possible to see God? If so, then how?

If what we mean by seeing God is seeing Him through the outer physical eye, it something totally ruled out both by the intellect and Islamic sources.
The intellect: the action of seeing takes place only when things are exposed to light beams and their reflection is captured by the eye. This means that there should firstly be an external thing present and secondly it should be captured by the eye in the field of vision. Based on this we cannot see things which are behind us, whereas God is not a physical entity and He does not have the physical features of a physical being. Therefore He can not be seen with the naked eye.
Islamic sources: There are verses in the Holy Quran and traditions which stipulate the impossibility of seeing God.
a) The Holy Quran says:
1 – O Moses you can never see me.[1]
2 – The eyes cannot see Him.[2]
b) Traditions: “God never appears before the eyes”[3]
“The eyes have never seen you”[4] and “The eyes will never see him openly”[5]
But if what we mean by seeing God is seeing Him through an inner witnessing and witnessing the light of the names and attributes of God in the heart, within the limits that human beings have then it is possible. Imam Ali (a) says: “Hearts can perceive Him”.[6] In another tradition he says to Za’lab: “Shame on you! Eyes cannot see Him but the hearts can.”[7]

How can we get to know God and rely on and truly love him?

The term “God” is one of the most general and simplest concepts that everyone, even atheists that deny His existence, definitely have some kind of perception of, although comprehending the true nature of his essence is out of our reach.

The ways to knowing and comprehending God can be summed up in the following ways:

1. Reason and intellect, like the argument of the necessary and possible being.

2. Through experimentation and sensation, such as the argument from design.[1]

3. The way of the heart or the argument of fetrah (genesis, innate disposition towards virtue and knowledge)[2],[3]
As for how we can rely solely on him: a person worthy of being relied on must possess two virtues:

1. Efficient amount of knowledge regarding the task that has been given to him and he has been asked to give aid for.

2. The power and strength to carry it out.
Due to the fact that God is aware of both what is hidden and evident and is never oblivious of anything for nothing can be hidden from his knowledge, and is also able to do whatsoever he desires, he surely is the best supporter one can lean on.

As for how one can love Allah (swt), there are several points that can be considered: 1. The reason as to why love occurs is realizing and perceiving the qualities and excellence one might hold.[4] 2. Mankind has an innate disposition towards virtue and perfection.3. God is sheer beauty and complete excellence and also the source of the good and beauty in the world. Hence we can deduct that man invariably loves God even though at times this natural feeling is subdued when he is deceived by his thoughts and actions into perceiving others as his beloved and this is the exact reason why Prophets had the duty of guiding mankind and liberating them from ignorance and cleansing their hearts and souls from immorality, so that they would realize the true beauty of the Lord.

Without a doubt true love has its signs and for someone to claim that he is truly devoted to God he will have to purify his soul and put into practice the moral teachings advocated by the true spiritual leaders, meaning the infallible imams, as a sign of the love he has for God and a spiritual means to connect with him in order to experience the unique feel of true selfless love.

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[1] Just because this way utilizes experimentation doesn’t mean it is devoid of any reasoning and rationality, what is meant when it is said that it is experimental is that one of the premises of the argument is such, which is to observe the different phenomena of this world.

[2] Ma’arefe Eslami, vol. 1, pg. 41.
[3] For further information see: Understanding God; Adopted from Question 479 (website:520).
[4] Sharh Isharat, vol. 3, pg. 360.

What is the purpose of creating mankind and the world?

July 23, 2014/in Beliefs, God and His Attributes /by amin edrisi

In order to find the answer to this question, a few things need to be cleared up:
1) Allah’s reason for creating the universe:
Paying attention to some points helps us in finding out what His motives are:
Because of Allah (swt) being of necessary existence and independent in it, He is of no limitation, and possesses all perfection.
2- One of the high virtues that His Excellency possesses is His never-ending grace and generosity. In the holy Quran, Allah (swt) says: “…and the bounty of your Lord is not confined.”[1]. Allah (swt) has no limitations on His behalf when it comes to granting and giving, thus if He ever doesn’t grant anything, that means that the person or object that was supposed to receive from Him wasn’t of the required capacity to receive what His Excellency wished to grant. So it is the one to receive who has limitations, not the one who wants to grant.
3- All goodness and virtues arise from existence (wujud), and all imperfections come from nonexistence (‘adam). For instance, knowledge is something that exists, while ignorance is the lack of knowledge. The same goes for strength and weakness.
4- Taken into consideration the third introduction, one can conclude that God’s grace and generosity manifests in Him creating, therefore being the All-Graceful necessitates creation.
In other words, if something ever deserves to be created yet God refuses to create it, it means that God has refused a good thing, because as was said before, all goodnesses and virtues somehow are related to creation. This means that God is being miserly while it is impossible for God to be miserly. Here we conclude that if anyone asks why Allah (swt) created, the answer is that God’s being the All-Graceful is the main cause.
5- God’s qualities and virtues aren’t things added to His essence (there is an argument about God’s qualities and virtues and if they are part of His essence or not; the Shia say that they are part of His essence, yet not causing multiplicity in it unlike some of the Sunnis [Mu’tazilah] who say that they are part of His essence but cause multiplicity, and unlike other Sunnis [‘Asha’irah] who say that they aren’t part of His essence at all but at the same time these virtues are eternal and pre-existent like Allah Himself), while in other objects, they aren’t part of their essence. For instance, the apple has an essence, and it also has some characteristics such as redness and sweetness. Redness and sweetness are all out of the apple’s essence because it can also be green and sour and still be an apple (have the essence of an apple).
The argument of God’s virtues being part of His essence or not is a deep theistic one which can be read about in the chapter on the oneness of God’s virtues and essence in theistic books.
What is important here is that being All-Graceful, is part of His essence (the more accurate way of putting it is to say that this and other qualities and virtues of God are all exactly His essence, not part of His essence, because it isn’t that God’s essence is made up of different parts in which one of them is His being All-Graceful), not outside of His essence. So if it is asked why God created, the answer is that because God is God. So the true reason for Him creating is Himself.
What is important is that although Allah (swt) doesn’t create in order to fulfill His own needs or to make up for His deficiencies because of His self-sufficience and has no deficiencies and is perfect, but His actions surely have a reason behind them because He is the All-wise and the wise one never does vain acts. The system of creation is a system that follows the high goals of Allah (swt) and no signs of disorder can be found in it.
According to Quranic verses, the creator of all things didn’t create them in vain nor for amusement, His creation is on the basis of the truth, and even the smallest particles in this world follow high goals and none of them have been created in vain.
Of course, one mustn’t forget that the final goal for creating the universe was for man to come into existence and in other words, Allah (swt) created the universe in order to create man because he is the highest of all creatures as his creator is the highest of all creators that the universe has never seen. It has been reported that Allah (swt) has said: “Oh son of Adam (pbuh), I have created everything for you, and have created you for myself.”[2]
2) God’s purpose for creation:
What was said till now was all about creation itself, but regarding the creation of man, one must say that the specific virtue that God wanted to achieve by creating man, is the goal of creating man.
The inevitable result of God being All-Graceful, is to create all possible virtues (meaning that His grace calls for Him to create all virtues that can be created). Before the creation of man, He had created other creatures called the angels who possessed all virtues that was possible for them from the beginning of their creation instead of acquiring them like man. Hence, they aren’t capable of achieving any new virtues and they don’t perfect any further. Allah quotes them saying: “For every one of us there is a determined place and position; And verily, we are all ranged in ranks to carry out Allah’s commands; And verily, we are those who perpetually celebrate Allah’s attributes”.[3]
Now that we have spoken of these two issues, it is time to start the main discussion. No matter what the purpose of creation is, its benefit is for man himself because Allah (swt) is of no need and self-sufficient and it is man who is in true need. Allah (swt) says in the Quran: “O mankind! You are the ones who stand in need of Allah, and Allah He is the All-sufficient, the All-laudable.”[4] Prophet Musa (pbuh) says to Bani-Israel: “Should you be faithless you and everyone on the earth all together [it doesn’t make a difference because] indeed Allah is all-sufficient, all-laudable”.[5]
In the famous sermon known as “the sermon of Hamam”, Imam Ali states regarding this matter: “Allah (swt) created mankind while being in no need of their obedience and servitude towards Him, and (also) being safe from their disobedience because the disobedience of sinners does Him no harm and the obedience of His servants has no benefit for Him (the only reason He has demanded His servants to obey Him and prohibited them from disobedience, is for their own prosperity).[6]
The purpose for creating man has been spoken of in different ways in the Quran. In reality, each of these explanations is pointing to one of the dimensions of the purpose of his creation. Some of those verses are as follows: “I did not create the jinn and the humans except that they may obey Me”[7], “He, who created death and life that He may test you (to see) which of you is better in their deeds”[8], “Had your Lord wished, He would have made mankind one community; but they continue to differ, except those on whom your Lord has mercy and that is why He created them (receiving mercy and reaching perfection as a result)”[9]. As you can see, all of these different assertions are in reality following one goal, and that is the development, perfection and guidance of man. As a result, we can conclude that the main and final goal for creating man is for him to reach perfection and eternal prosperity and the highest virtues and human values, and all of these goals can be accomplished through the obedience and servitude of Allah (swt).
Imam Sadiq (as) says that Imam Husein (as) came before his companions saying: “Allah (swt) has created His servants solely for them to know Him, when they know Him, they worship Him, and when they worship Him, they no longer have any need to worship other than Him.”[10]

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[1] Isra:20.

[2] یابن آدم خلقت الاشیاء لأجلک و خلقتک لأجلی al-Manhajul-Qawiyy, vol. 5, pg. 516, ‘Ilmul-Yaqin, vol. 1, pg. 381.
[3] Saffat:164 and 166.
[4] یا ایها الناس انتم الفقراء الی الله و الله هو الغنی الحمید (Fatir:15).
[5] و قال موسی ان تکفروا انتم و من فی الارض جمیعاً فإن الله لغنی حمید (Ibrahim:8).
[6] اما بعد ، فإن الله سبحانه و تعالی خلق الخلق حین خلقهم غنیاً عن طاعتهم ، آمناً من معصیتهم ، لأنه لاتضره معصیة من عصاه ، و لاتنفعه طاعة من أطاعه (Nahjul-Balaghah of Faydh, pg. 11, the sermon of Hammam.
[7] و ما خلقت الجن و الانس الا لیعبدون (Dhariyat:56).
[8] الذی خلق الموت و الحیاة لیبلوکم ایکم احسن عملاً (Mulk:2).
[9] و لایزالون مختلفین الا من رحم ربک ولذالک خلقهم (Hud:118-119).
[10] ان الله عزوجل ما خلق العباد الا لیعرفوه، فإذا عرفوه عبدوه، فإذا عبدوه استغنوا بعبادته عن عبادة من سواه (‘Ilalul-Shara’i’ of Saduq, according to what al-Mizan has quoted.

God’s Knowledge

July 21, 2014/in Beliefs, God and His Attributes /by amin edrisi

The last point which we feel should be mentioned here in the discussion of predestination and free will is the excuse used by some fatalists as knowledge of the eternal of God.

They say, “Does God know that so and so at such and such an hour on such and such a day will kill someone or will drink an alcoholic beverage?”

If we say, “He does not know,” we have denied God’s knowledge. And if we say, “Yes, that person must do this, otherwise God’s knowledge will be imperfect,” then, in order to preserve God’s knowledge, a person is obliged to sin and obey God!

But the fact is, this excuse was fabricated in order to cover over the sins they wanted to commit but they have forgotten the fact that we say that God knew from eternity whether we would be inclined towards free will and choice and will obey or sin. That is, our will or choice was also part of God’s knowledge. Thus, if we are obliged to sin, God’s knowledge will become ignorant.

Allow us to put forth some questions on this point to clarify them. Assume that a teacher knows that a lazy student will fail at the end of the year and the teacher is one hundred percent sure of this fact because of years of experience as a teacher.

When the student fails, can the student take the teacher to task and say: “Your knowledge and what you foresaw caused me to fail.”?

Or, let us assume that there is a sinless and pure person and he knew of a murder which would take place on such and such a day and interferes to prevent it, does the knowledge of this pure person take away the responsibility of the criminal, obliging the criminal to commit the crime?

Or, assume that a new machine has been invented which can predict the occurrence of an event several hours before it happens and it can say that so and so at such and such an hour in such and such a place will commit such and such an act. Does this oblige that person to do this?

In summary, God’s knowledge never obliges anyone to do anything.

Why do we think about God and study ways of knowing the Creator of the universe?

July 21, 2014/in Beliefs, God and His Attributes /by amin edrisi

1. The Love to be informed about and know the world is deep inside every one of us

We all want to know, in truth: Did this elevated heaven, with its beautiful stars, this extensive earth, with its heart-rendering views; these various creatures; beautiful birds; various kinds of fish, the seas and flowers; the blossoms, plants, abundant trees, whose tops reach towards the heavens; did all of these things come into being of their own free will or were all of these wonderful forms painted by an expert, a powerful painter?

Beyond all of this, the first question which comes to mind for all of us is: Where did we come from? Where are we? Where are we going? If we know the answers to these three questions, how happy will we be! That is, if we know where our life began and where it will finally end and what duties we have now, our searching spirit tells us: you must not sit quietly until the answers come.

It often happens that in an automobile accident, a person is injured and becomes unconscious and for his treatment, they take him to a hospital. When his condition has improved a bit, and when he awakens, the first thing which he asks of those around him is, “Where am I? Why did you bring me here? When can I leave here?” All of these questions show that a person cannot remain indifferent and not ask these questions.

Thus, the first thing which sends us looking for God and understanding of the creation of the world of existence is our very thirsty spirit of search.

2. A sense of thankfulness

Pretend that you have been invited to a very important affair and all means of convenience have been provided for you but, because you have been invited through your brother, you do not know the host well. The first thing you will want to do when you enter the gathering is to find the host to thank him.

When we look at this widespread created world and the multiple blessings which have been provided for us: eyes which see, ears which hear, sufficient intelligence, various physical and psychological abilities, various means for living and for earning our livelihood, we automatically begin to think about trying to know He Who has given us all of these blessings and even though He does not need our thanks, we still thank Him and, until we do this, we are unhappy with ourselves and feel we have not done a duty.

This is another reason why we begin to search to come to know God.

3. The bond between things to our benefit and things to our harm with this example

Pretend that we are going on a journey and we reach a cross-road in which there is a great deal of commotion. Everyone warns us not to stop at this cross-road because there is great danger there. Each group invites us to go its way. One group says, “The best way is to go east.”

Another says, “Go West. It is the best road.” The third group invites us to a road or a way which is between the other two, saying, “This is the only way of saving yourself from danger and reaching your home safely. This is the way that will give you happiness and security and be a place of refuge for you.”

Would we allow ourselves to choose a way without study? Will our mind allow us to stop there and not choose any way? Clearly not.

Rather, our mind and our wisdom tells us to begin immediately to study and research, to listen to the words of each group carefully and accept whichever way has the most correct signs, speaks the truth and has convincing reasons for taking that way. Having assured ourselves of the right way, we take it and move forward.

In life in this world, also, we have such a condition. Different religions and schools of thought invite us to take their way, but as our fate, our fortune and misfortune, our progress and backwardness depends upon our study and making the best choice, we are obliged to think about this and prevent ourselves from falling into misfortune, corruption and difficulties.

This is yet another reason which invites us to search for the Creator of the world. The Holy Qur’an says:

“So give good tidings to my servants, those who listen to the sayings and follow the best of it…” (39: 18)

Guidance and Error are in God’s Hands

July 10, 2014/in Beliefs, God and His Attributes /by amin edrisi

1. The Parts of Guidance and Error

A traveler has an address in his hand. He meets you and asks you to help him find the address. You have two choices before you:

First, to go with him and complete your good deed by accompanying him to his destination and then say good-bye and leave him.

Second, indicate with your hand and giving various signs guide him towards his destination.

It is evident that in both cases, you have guided him towards his destination but there is a difference between these two; the second one is just expressing way and the first, is taking one to one’s destination. The Holy Qur’an and Traditions of Islam mention both ways.

On the other hand, sometimes guidance only has legal quality to it, that is, formed by means of laws and rules and sometimes it has an instinctive quality, that is, by means of facilities provided by creation like the guidance of a seed to becoming a complete human being and both of these ways are mentioned in the Holy Qur’an and the Traditions.

By clarifying the means of guidance (and, naturally the point opposite it, leading astray or error), we return to the main discussion.

We read in many of the verses of the Holy Qur’an that guidance and leading astray is God’s work. Doubtlessly, the ‘indication of the way’ comes from God. Why? Because He sent the Prophet and sent the heavenly Book to show people the way.

But ‘reaching the goal’ through coercion or force clearly does not agree with free will and choice but because all power and strength which is necessary to reach one’s goal God gives us and it is He Who gives us success upon this way, this sense of guidance is also from God, that is, preparation of the equipment and the preliminaries and providing them is at the disposal of humanity.

2. An Important Question

Now, an important question arises, and that is what we read in many verses of the Holy Qur’an:

“God guides whom He wills and misleads whom He wills. “(14:4)

Some people, without considering other verses of the Holy Qur’an, and the interpretation which one verse has with others, immediately, upon seeing this verse, object and say, “If God guides whom He wills and misleads whom He wills, what are we supposed to do in the middle?”

The important point is that the verses of the Holy Qur’an must always be studied in relation to each other in order to understand them in truth. Here we will recall several other verses about guidance and leading astray so that you can study them in relation to the above verse:

“God will establish in strength those who believe, with the Word that stands firm in this world and in the hereafter; but God will leave, to stray, those who do wrong: God does what He wills. (14:27)

“Thus does God leave to stray such as transgress and live in doubt. “ (40:34)

“And those who strive in Our (Cause), We will certainly guide them to Our paths: for verily God is with those who do right. “ (29:69)

As we see, God’s will is not unaccountable. He neither gives the success of guidance to a person nor does He deny a person success. Those who undertake the jihad upon God’s Way, war with their difficulties and show strength and firmness of purpose, have been promised guidance and this is justice.

But those who create oppression and suppression and those who take steps towards extravagance, doubt, injustice and causing temptation in hearts, God takes away their possibility of guidance.

Their hearts, as a result of these deeds, are darkened and they will not be able to succeed in reaching the station of well-being. This is how the Creator leaves the results of our deeds in our own hands and this is justice.

3. Knowledge of the Eternal is a cause to Arise

The last point which we feel should be mentioned here in the discussion of predestination and free will is the excuse used by some fatalists as knowledge of the eternal of God.

They say, “Does God know that so and so at such and such an hour on such and such a day will kill someone or will drink an alcoholic beverage?” If we say, “He does not know,” we have denied God’s knowledge and if we say, “Yes, that person must do this, otherwise God’s knowledge will be imperfect.”

Thus, in order to preserve God’s knowledge, a person is obliged to sin and obey God!!

When the student fails, can the student take the teacher to task and say, “Your knowledge and what you foresaw caused me to fail.”

Or, let us assume that he is a sinless and pure person and he knew of a murder which would take place on such and such a day and interferes to prevent it, does the knowledge of this pure person take away the responsibility of the criminal, obliging the criminal to commit the crime?

In summary, Gods knowledge never obliges anyone to do anything.

Think and Answer

1. How many kinds of guidance are there? Describe them.
2. Recite the verses of the Qur’an which describe God’s guidance and leading astray.
3. What is the interpretation of God’s guidance and leading astray?
4. What is meant by Gods eternal knowledge?
5. Does this knowledge withdraw our duty and responsibility? Give an example.

In the World of Infinitely Small Things

July 10, 2014/in Beliefs, God and His Attributes /by amin edrisi

Because we are nurtured in the wondrous world of creation and we are familiar with it, we may be unaware of the importance of many of its wonders such as:

1. Insects and very tiny animals live around us, which if measured, would not even be two millimeters but just like large animals, they have hands, feet, eyes, ears, even brains, awareness, a certain series of nerves and digestive facilities.

If we put the brain of an ant under a microscope and if we study its amazing structure with care, we would see what a strange and interesting body it has. The various parts are placed next to each other, each gives a command to a certain part of the tiny ant’s body and the slightest change in any of these areas would paralyze a part of its body.

The strange part is that in this small brain, which is much smaller than the head of a pin, lies a world of awareness, wisdom, civilization, taste and art. It is such that a group of scholars spend many long years of their lives, studying these animals. They include the interesting points in the books that they write for us.

Can the person who created all of this awareness, wisdom, taste in such a small animals be a nature that does not itself have even a pin-head’s amount of awareness and wisdom?

2. In the mysterious world, we know that the smallest creature recognized to date is the ‘atom’. The ‘atom’ is so small that even the strongest microscope, one which shows a piece of straw like a mountain, is not strong enough to see one.

If you want to know how small an atom is, know that one drop of water has more atoms than the number of people upon the earth and if we want to count the protons in one centimeter of a thin wire and we get 1000 people to help us and if in each second, we separate out one of them, it will take 30 to 300 years (depending on the number of atoms) of working day and night to count all of them.

Now that you have understood that one centimeter of a thin wire contains so many atoms, just think about how many atoms are in the heavens and on the earth; in water and the air and the stars and planets and the galaxy!!

Does one’s mind not tire just thinking about it? No one other than their Creator is worthy to count them.

Atoms Give us a Lesson in Monotheism

Learning about atoms, which are among the most important scientific discussions today, this tiny thing gives us a glad and happy lesson in monotheism because the world of atoms call our attention to them in four areas.

1. The extraordinary sense of order. To date, more than 100 elements have been discovered beginning gradually with one electron and accepting up to over 100; this amazing order could never be born from an unaware or unintelligent factor.

2. Strong sense of balance. We know that two different electrons attract each other. Thus electrons which are negative and a nucleus which is positive should attract each other.

In addition, we also know that the encirclement of electrons around a nucleus brings a repulsive force into being (flight from the center). Thus the pull of this force draws electrons away from the atomic environment. The atom is separated and its attractive forces want to attract the electrons and destroy the atom.

It is here that one must see how accurately the force of ‘attraction’ and ‘repulsion’ have been systematically arranged in atoms so that neither do the electrons flee nor are they attracted, but are always in a state of balance, continuing their movement. It is possible that a blind and deaf nature bring this balance into being?

3. Each upon its own way: We have said that some atoms have a multiple number of electrons but not that all of the electrons move in one circuit, but rather, in multiple circuits and each electron in a determined distance, each within its own area, with great speed move like this for millions of years, without any contradiction arising between them.

It is a simple issue to place all of these in a fixed circuit and movement with an unbelievable system of order?

4. The great energy of the atom: In order to understand the great strength of the atom, just consider that in 1945, an experimental atom bomb was set off in the wilderness. A very small atomic bomb was placed upon a metal stand. After the explosion, the metal melted and then set off steam and electricity and a frightful sound was heard. When scientists went to look for it, there was no sign of it.

In this same year, two small bombs like these were inhumanely exploded over Japan by the USA, one in the city of Nagasaki and the other in the city of Hiroshima. In the first city, 70,000 people were killed instantly and the same number were injured and in the second city, 30 to 40, 000 people were killed instantly and the same number were injured, making Japan unconditionally surrender the war with America.

Is it not sufficient to simply study the small atom for the human being to come to know the greatness of the Creator of the universe? It can then be said that there are as many reasons for the existence of God as there are atoms in the universe.

“And if all the trees on earth were pens and the ocean (were ink), with seven oceans behind it to add to its (supply) yet would not the words of god be exhausted” … (31:27)

Think and Answer

1. Do you know other things about the life of ants?

2. Can you draw the structure of an atom on the black board?

Appendix to Lesson Ten: How Splendid Are God’s Qualities

His Qualities

Know that to the same extent that realizing the existence of God through studying the secrets of the created world is easy, learning of His Qualities is difficult and requires a great deal of care and caution.

You probably wonder why. The reason for this is clear because God does not resemble anything we have ever seen or heard. Thus the first condition to recognize God’s Qualities is to negate all of the qualities of creatures, that is, not comparing Him to any limited creature of the world of nature.

It is here that our task becomes difficult because we have grown up in the heart of this nature. Our contact has been with nature. We have become familiar with it. Thus we are inclined to compare everything with it.

In other words, whatever we have seen has had a material form. Some of the creatures which have a determined time and place, have a special dimension and form. Because of this, conceiving of a God Who neither has eyes, nor time, nor place, but, at the same time, He overlooks all times and all places and is unlimited from all points of view, is a difficult task. That is, it requires that steps be taken along this way with great care.

But it is necessary to remind ourselves here of this point that we can never come to know God’s Essence and we should not expect that we could because such an expectation is like expecting to contain the endless seas in a glass or expect that a child, which is developing in its mother’s womb, know about all of the world outside of the womb. Is this possible?

It is here that such a small blunder will cause a person to fall tens of kilometers from the main way of coming to know God and become waylaid in crags of idol worship and the worship of creatures. Note with care that, in summary, we must be conscious of never comparing God’s Qualities with the qualities of creatures.

The Qualities of Majesty and Beauty

We most often divide God’s Qualities into two groups: those Qualities which God has and those Qualities which God is free from. And now, this question arises as to how many Qualities God’s Essence has.

The answer is: On one hand, God’s Qualities are endless and unlimited and, on the other hand, they can be summarized in one Quality because all of the Qualities of God can be summarized in the following:

The Essence of God is an essence which is infinite from all points of view and it contains all perfections.

From the point of view of Qualities which God does not contain, they can be summarized in the following sentence. The Essence of God is not imperfect from any point of view.

But from another angle, as perfections and imperfections have various levels, that is, we can conceive of endless perfections and endless imperfections, thus, it can be said that God is the infinite of demonstrated Qualities and infinite negation of Qualities because whatever perfection you can imagine, He has and whatever imperfection you can imagine, He is free of. Thus the demonstrated and negation of Qualities of God are unlimited.

The Most Well-Known Qualities of God

The most famous demonstrated Qualities of God can be summarized in the following:

1. God is the ‘Knower’ (‘Alim): He knows all things.

2. God is Powerful (Qadir): He has ability over all things.

3. God is the Living because something which is living has wisdom, power and because God is Wise and Powerful, thus He is Living.

4. God is the Willer (Mur’id), that is, He has a Will power and He is not obliged in His work and whatever He does, has a goal and wisdom and even the smallest thing in the universe does not lack a philosophy and a goal.

5. God is Perceiving (Mudrek), that is, He understands and perceives all things. He sees everything; he hears all things and He is aware of all things.

6. God is Primordial and Eternal (Qadim and Azali), that is, He always was and His existence has no beginning because He always boils from His inner Essence and because of this, He is primordial and eternal because a person whose being is from he himself has no non-existence or annihilation.

7. God is the Speaker (Mutakalim), that is, he can create waves in the atmosphere and speak to his Prophet, not that God has a tongue or lips or a larynx.

8. God is Truthful (Sadiq), that is, whatever He says is the Truth and is equivalent to reality because lying comes from ignorance or from weakness and a lack of Power and it is impossible for God Who is Knowing and Powerful, to lie.

The most well-known negation of Qualities of God

1. He is not a composite. That is, He does not have mixed elements because in this case,
He would be in need of other elements, whereas, He is in need of nothing.

2. God is not a body because everybody is limited, unstable and accepts annihilation.

3. God is not visible. That is, He cannot be seen because if He could be seen, He would be a body, limited and accepting annihilation.

4. God has no place because He is not a body to require a place.

5. God has no partner because if He had a partner, He would have to be a limited creature because two non limited, from every point of view, is not possible and in addition, the unity of law of this world shows His Oneness.

6. His Qualities are exactly like His Essence.

7. God is Needless and Self-sufficient. He is rich and containing everything because an endless being from the point of view of knowledge, power and all things has no deficiencies.

The Holy Qur’an says:

“There is nothing like unto Him.” (42:11)

Think and Answer

1. Do you know another reason for the Oneness of God and His not having a partner?
2. Have you heard that some religions believe that God is three and some believe that He is two? Which religions are these?

Love for Insects and Flowers

July 10, 2014/in Beliefs, God and His Attributes, home /by amin edrisi

One spring day when the weather is, little by little, growing warmer, make a visit to a park or a farm. You will meet up with all sorts of small insects, honey bees, flies, butterflies and mosquitoes, who, without making a sound, fly from one flower to the next and from this branch to that branch of the trees.

They are so busy with their work that one could imagine an employer is overlooking their progress and continuously telling them what to do. Their wings and feet are colored yellow by the pollen of the flowers, giving them the look of workers who have put on their work clothes and with love and seriousness, they continue their work.

In truth, they have a very important assignment which is so great that Professor Leon Briton says, “Few people realize that without the work of insects, our fruit baskets would be empty.”

And we add this sentence, “The next year, our green gardens and pastures would be completely lost.” Thus, insects are, in reality, the real nourishers of fruit and providers of flower seeds.

You most probably ask why. Because the most sensitive act in the life of flowers is performed with their help. You have probably heard that flowers, like many animals, have two parts, masculine and feminine, and that reproduction takes place through their union, giving us seeds and fruit.

But have you ever thought how the two parts of flowers, which do not move, are attracted to each other? And how the male spermatozoa mix with the female ovary and provide the beginning of a marriage between the two?

This work is most often the work of insects and, in some cases; it is the work of the wind. But this is not as simple as we think it is. This fruitful marriage, in which insects act as the intermediates, has a history, formality and long adventure, only a small part of which we mention here with a short story.

Two old and close friends: Natural scientists, after study, have concluded that flowers and plants appeared in the second geological age and strangely enough, insects appeared at the same time. These two, throughout the eventful history of creation, were like two old and close friends who have remained loyal to each other and have been complements to one another.

Flowers have always stored sweet nectar within themselves in order to further attract and sweeten the relationship. At the time when insects enter the flower in order to transfer the masculine group, provide the preliminaries for the marriage and pregnancy, the flower freely gives of its sweetness to them. This sweet and valuable sugar is so good tasting to the insect that they are naturally pulled towards it.

Some botanists believe that the beautiful colors and good smelling perfume of flowers also play an important role in attracting the insects to them. Various experiments with honey bees have shown that they distinguish colors and the aroma of flowers.

In reality, it is these flowers which grow for insects and have a good-smelling aroma in such a way that a butterfly and honey bees are attracted to them. They accept the invitation with all of their being and quickly begin the preliminaries and eat of their sweetness.

This very sweetness is a special kind of sugar which is considered to be the best food for insects. When it is stored in one place, it makes honey because insects are attracted to flowers. It eats some of this sweetness and takes most of it with them to their honeycomb to store. This is a contract of friendship and love which is based on mutual interest, always existed and will continue to exist between flowers and insects.

A lesson about monotheism: when a human being studies these wondrous points in the lives of insects and flowers, he or she automatically asks, “Who established this pact of love and friendship between insects and flowers?”

Who gave this special sweetness and good tasting nectar to flowers? Who granted flowers these attractive colors, beauty and this sweet-smelling perfume? Who invited in sects towards it? What were the fat and tiny bodies of insects, butterflies, honey bees and golden bees given to make them prepared to collect the pollen of flowers?

Why do bees, for a certain period of time, move towards one kind of flower? Why did the life of flowers and insects begin at one time in the created world?

Can anyone – no matter how stubborn – accept the fact that all of these events were without any plan or pre-design? And the unconscious laws of nature automatically brought such wondrous scenes into being? Never!

“And thy Nourisher taught the bee to build its cells in hills, on trees and in habitations then to eat of all the produce (of the earth) and find with skill the spacious paths of its Nourisher…” (16:68-69)

Think and Answer

1. What use does the sweetness, color and perfume of flowers have?
2. What do you know about the amazing life of honey bees?

A World of Wonder in a Small Bird

July 10, 2014/in Beliefs, God and His Attributes /by amin edrisi

In this lesson, we want to leave aside the large country of our body, which we have only very briefly touched upon, and turn to a look at the wonderful order of other creatures.

We look at the sky in the darkness of night. We see an exceptional bird which is searching for food with all of its energy. This bird is a bat. There are many wondrous things but flying at night is among the most wondrous.

The swift flight of bats in the darkness of the night without hitting anything is so wondrous that no matter how often one studies this, new mysteries of this are revealed.

This bird flies with the same speed and accuracy as a pigeon does in the day time. If it flies into a dark and narrow tunnel which is full of smoke and twists and turns, it will fly through all of the twists and turns without hitting any of the walls and not the smallest amount of smoke will be found on its wings.

This strange ability of the bat is proof of an effect within it which is similar to radar. We now need to know what radar is in order to be able to see it in a small bat.

In physics, in the discussion on forms, waves are discussed which are beyond sound waves. These waves are those same waves whose length and frequency are so great that the human ear cannot hear them. This is why they are called meta-sound waves.

When these waves are set off by means of a very strong transmitter, these waves move forward but whenever they meet up with any kind of a barrier in a point of space (like the aircraft of the enemy, etc), just like a ball when it hits a wall and bounces back, like our voice before a mountain or a high wall and based on an accurate record of how long it takes for the sound to return to us, we can measure the exact distance to the object.

Many aircrafts and ships are guided by means of radar and it takes them to whatever direction they want.

It is also used to find out the location of enemy ships and aircraft.

Scholars say that within this small creature, there is something similar to radar so that if the bat flies in a room which at that same moment a microphone is put to use to transform meta-sound waves into sound waves which can be heard, in each second (30 to 60 times) the meta-sound waves will be heard by the bat.

Scholars in answer to this say, “These waves leave the larynx through the nose of the bat by means of strong organs and its ears, which are the receivers, receive these.

Thus, this bat, in its night travels, is obligated to its ears. A scholar, through experiment, has proven that if you remove the ears of a bat, it cannot fly avoiding things whereas if you completely remove its eyes, it will very expertly still be able to fly. That is, a bat sees with its ears! Not its eyes. And this is most strange.

Now think who created these two wondrous organs in this small creature and how was it taught how to use them? And how can it avoid the dangers which exist during its night flying? Who?

Is it possible that nature have the intelligence and consciousness to do this? and place these organs which scientists copy, at great expense, in its body?

Hadrat ‘Ali, peace be upon him, in the Nahj al-Balaghah, in a very long sermon about creation, mentions the bat, saying, “It is never prevented from the way because of the darkness of the night. Great and glorious is God Who, without a previous model, brought everything into being.

Think and Answer

1. What other interesting information do you have about the bat?
2. Did you know that the bat’s wings and how it bears children and that even its method of sleeping differs from other animals and that it is most exceptional?

Examples From Creation

July 10, 2014/in Beliefs, God and His Attributes /by amin edrisi

Throughout the world, ‘order’, ‘goal’ and ‘design’ are apparent. Now pay attention as we study some examples of this. We will present some large and small examples for you.

Fortunately, today, with the progress made in natural sciences, the discovery of the secrets and wonders of the world of nature, and the subtleties in the existence of human beings, animals and plants, the wonderful structure of a cell or an atom and the wonderful system of the stars, the doors of knowing God have been opened to us in such a way that one can clearly say that all books of natural science are books about the oneness and unity of God which teach us great lessons about the great Creator because these books remove the veils or curtains which cover the interesting order of the creatures of this world and show how important the Creator of this world is.

The center of administration of the country of your body

Our skull has been filled with grey matter called the brain. This brain forms the most accurate and exact system of our body because it commands all of the powers of our body and it manages all of the organs of our system.

In order to understand the importance of this great center, it would be a good idea for us to explain the following for you.

The newspapers had printed that a Shiraz university student in Khuzistan was in an automobile accident and his brain was damaged but it seemed that nothing at all had happened to him. All of his organs were healthy but strangely enough, he had forgotten all of his past life. His mind worked well.

He could study but if he saw his mother and father, he did not recognize them. When they said to him that this was his mother, he was surprised. They took him to his home in Shiraz. They showed him the handicraft work he had done and then hung on the walls of his room.

But he looked at it all in amazement and said that he was seeing these things for the first time.

It became clear that in the brain damage he suffered, cells which were, in reality, transitions between thought and his memory were no longer working and like a blown out fuse which cuts off the electricity and brings darkness, his memory of the past had been disconnected.

Perhaps the point which no longer works is no bigger than the size of the top of a pin but what an effect it has had upon his life and from this it becomes clear how complicated and how important our brain is.

Our brain consists of two separate parts: first, the part which is controlled by our voluntary which controls all of our voluntary motions like walking, looking, speaking.

Second, the involuntary part which controls the movement of our heart, stomach, etc. and if one part of this part of the brain does not function, the heart or another organ will no longer function.

One of the Most Wonderful Parts of the Brain

The cerebrum is the center of will power, consciousness and memory. In other words, it is one of the most sensitive areas of the brain and many of the reactions of the inner senses like anger, fear, etc. relate to it.

If we take out the cerebrum in an animal but we leave the other organs as they are, it will remain alive but its understanding and consciousness will be totally eliminated.

They have removed the brain of a pigeon. It remained alive for a while but it could not eat seeds that were placed in front of it. Even though it was hungry, it would not eat.
If it was allowed to fly, it flew until it hit a barrier and fell down.

Another Wonderful Part of the Brain is the Sense of Memory

Have you ever thought how wonderful our sense of memory is? If our sense of memory is taken from us for even one hour, what a difficult situation we will be placed in.

The center of memory which forms a small part of our brain is where all of our memories of our lifetime are stored. Whoever is related to us, the particularities of that person as to size, form, color, clothes and spirit, are kept in storage in their own area and a special file is formed for each one.

Thus the moment we confront that person, our mind removes him from the file and immediately, completely reviews what we know about him and then it commands us as to what reaction we should have.

If it is a friend, respect and if it is an enemy, the showing of hatred but all of this is done so quickly that there is more or less no lapse of time.

The wonder of this becomes more apparent when we try to recall what is stored and draw it or write it down or record it in a tape recorder.

Without any doubt, it will require a great deal of paper or a great number of tapes which can fill a large storage room.

Even more wonderful than this is when we want to find one drawing or one tape among them, a file clerk will be necessary but our sense of memory does all of this work very simply, easily and quickly.

How can an Unconscious nature create a conscious one?

Many books have been written about the wonders of the human brain. Can you believe that such an extraordinary system which is so subtle, accurate, complicated and mysterious be made from unconscious nature?

More wonderful than this is to believe that an unintelligent nature could create intelligence!

The Holy Qur’an says:

“On the earth are signs for those of assured faith as also in your own selves: will you not then see?’’(51:21)

Think and Answer

1. Do you have any other information about the wonders of the human brain?
2. What has God created in order to protect the human brain against accident?