The Unity of Being [Wahdat-al-Wujud]

God as a being Necessary in Itself [واجب بالذات] must be necessary from all aspects [واجب من جميع الجحات] and that which is necessary from all aspects must be infinite because a finite or a limited entity is contrary to the notion of necessity from all aspects; therefore Pure Being exists as an infinite reality that cannot be bounded or restricted by any limit, and being infinite in its reality, Pure Being leaves no room for any other reality or existent because to acknowledge the existence of another or a plurality of others besides Pure Being [وجود حض] is tantamount to negating the very notion of its infinity and consequently the negation of its being necessary from all aspects. But our sense-perception [ادراك حسى], which is knowledge by acquisition [علم حصولى] and intuition, which is knowledge by presence [علم حضورى], both provide us with irrefutable evidence for the existence of contingent beings such as our souls [نفوس] and the entire cosmos [عالم امكان]; such evidence cannot be ignored neither can it be considered as a figment of our imagination or an illusion, therefore the world and all that it holds is real and has existence; but if the contingent world exists, so it must exist due to its contingency [امكان ذاتى] by virtue of a being that is Necessary in Itself, and that which is Necessary in Itself must be necessary from all aspects including infinity, but an infinite reality such as the Pure Being must not allow the existence of any other, because to grant the existence of another is to check or limit its own infinity, and therefore the contingent world must not exist, but we know for sure that it does and here lies the problem; because on the one hand we have the existence of the entire contingent world which is undeniable and on the other hand we also know that the existence of this contingent realm could only have been necessitated by an infinite reality or Pure Being, whose very infinity must negate the existence of any other, or the existence of that other must necessarily entail the finitude of this Pure Being.

This apparent contradiction is resolved when we see the contingent world not as a negation but as a manifestation [مظهر] of the infinity of the Necessary Being and realize that the infinity of Pure Being would only have been negated had the world been subsistent in itself [قائم بالذات] and essentially-independent [مستقل بالذات] off God in any aspect, in other words the infinity of the divine would only have been negated if the world would have been necessary in essence instead of being essentially-contingent and dependent [مهتاج] upon the divine from all aspects; had the world been essentially-independent even from a single aspect,so that would have been sufficient to render void divine infinity. But the world in its essence is contingent [ممكن بالذات] and destitute [موجود فقير] from all aspects and therefore depends upon the divine for everything. But when it is said that the world is dependent upon the divine so by that we do not mean that the world was something to which dependence is ascribed or predicated as an accidental-attribute [عرض] because such an assertion entails the existence of something or a subject [موضوع] which subsequently suffers from destitution [فقر] and dependence [اهتياج], because that would imply that the subject was independent in its existence. Therefore the contingent world is not something to which destitution and dependence occur but rather it is the very destitution and dependence itself; it is not something that becomes related [مربوط] to its perfect-cause [علت تامه], meaning the divine, but is the very relation itself [رابطه], this is because all that an effect [معلول] is in terms of existence, perfection and completion it is due to its existence granting cause such that whatever existence and perfections a contingent being possesses, it does so by reason of its perfect-cause, that showers it with existence and perfection to the extent of the effect’s capacity to receive. Whatever existence or reality we see around us in the form of contingent-essences [ممكنات], it does not essentially belong to those contingent essences but has been imparted to them by the Pure Being; the Quran beautifully expresses the same notion as “يا أَيُّهَا النّاسُ أَنتُمُ الفُقَراءُ إِلَى اللَّهِ ۖ وَاللَّهُ هُوَ الغَنِيُّ الحَميدُ”, translation “Oh mankind you are destitute before God and God is absolutely independent and all praise-worthy”.

Therefore all that exists and possesses reality is simply a manifestation or a reflection of Pure Being since all the good [خير] and perfection [كمال] possessed by the world has been granted to it by the divine and hence every contingent existent is a manifestation of the Divine Names & Attributes to the extent of its capacity, as is mentioned in the Quran “ وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ اللَّيْلُ وَالنَّهَارُ وَالشَّمْسُ وَالْقَمَرُ” translation “And of His signs are the night and day and the sun and moon” [41:37]; and this is what the notion of the Unity of Being [وحدت الوجود] truly means according to Mulla Sadra that nothing exists in the realm of existence [عالم وجود] except the Essence[ذات], His Names & Attributes [اسماء و صفات] and His Manifestations [جلوات], meaning that All that Is, is either God, or that which is dependent upon His grace [فيض] and an effect of His Causation, and that there is nothing in the realm of being that does not belong to Him or that does not exists through Him, this is his statement “He alone is the Reality and the Truth and all the other beings are simply different manifestations of His Reality; He is the Essence and all that is besides Him are His Names & Attributes and the manifestations of His Names & Attributes”[Shawahid-al-Rububiyah,Mashad#1,Ishraq#11]; in other words there can be nothing existent that does not derive its being from the Pure Being or is essentially-independent from God as is stated by the verse “وَرَحْمَتِي وَسِعَتْ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ”, translation “And My Mercy encompasses all things”[7:156]. Because how can there be anything without possessing being وجود, and being itself only emanates from the Pure Being therefore it is impossible for there to be anything independent from God. In other words nothing can exist without having existence and existence itself only comes from the divine which is Pure Existence, free from non-existence [عدم], imperfection [نقص] and privation [عيب]. Therefore whatever we see is simply a manifestation of the Divine Names & Attributes as is stated in the Quran “وَلِلَّهِ الْمَشْرِقُ وَالْمَغْرِبُ فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّوا فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ اللَّهِ”, translation “And to Allah belongs the east and the west. So wherever you [might] turn, there is the Face of Allah” [2:115].

Unity of Being does not mean that the contingent-world exists within God or that the world is God, because the contingent-world neither exists within God like a material thing may exist within another material thing because God is an immaterial and an incorporeal reality, nor does it exist outside the divine just as a physical thing may exist outside or external to another material or physical thing, because that implies imposing a limit or a measure upon God which is once again contrary to the notion of His infinity and boundlessness. The truth is as it has been expressed in a most sublime manner by the King of the Monotheists, Imam Ali(as) “داخل فى لاشياء لا كشئى داخل فى شئ و خارج من لاشياءلا كشئى خارج من شئ”, translation “He is within things but not the way things are within other things, He is without things but not the way things are without other things”[Al-Kafi, Kitab-al-Tawhid,h#225]. Mulla Sadra compares the God-world relationship with the relation that exists between the sun and its rays and states that “He is the Self-Subsisting Light [نور قيومى] ( that grants subsistence to all beings) and all the others besides Him are either His illuminations [اشراقات] or manifestations [تجليات]”[Shawahid-al-Rububiyah,Mashad#1,Ishraq#1]; the same notion is expressed in the Quran as well in this verse “اللَّهُ نورُ السَّماواتِ وَالأَرضِ”, translation “God is the light of the heavens and the earth”[24:35]; and the same notion has been expressed by the Shi’ite Imams (as) as well in their philosophical sermons and supplications, such as the statement of Imam Ali (as) “ وَبِنُورِ وَجْهِكَ الَّذِي أَضَاءَ لَهُ كُلُّ شَيٍْء”, translation “And by the light of Your face, through which all things are illumined” [Dua-e-Kumail]; according to the philosophers the term “نُورِ” is a mystical expression for “existence” therefore substituting “existence” in place of “light” would mean that all things derive their existence and reality from the Light of all lights or the Pure Being; therefore nothing exists in the realm of existence besides His Essence[ذات], His Names & Attributes [اسماء و صفات] and the Manifestations [جلوات] of His Names & Attributes, as is also stated by Imam Ali (as) “وَبِأَسْمَائِكَ الَّتِي مَلأَتْ أَرْكَانَ كُلِّ شَيٍْء”, translation “And by Your Names, which have filled the foundations of all things”[Dua-e-Kumail]. Everything in the contingent world derives its reality from the Divine Names & Attributes (as stated by the Imam), which in their turn derive their reality from the Divine Essence.