Being and Knowledge

Muhammad ibn Isma‘il has narrated from al-Fadl ibn Shadhan from Safwan ibn Yahya from Mansur ibn Hazim who said the following:
"Once I said to Imam abu ‘Abd Allah (as), ‘Allah by far is Majestic and Gracious to be known through His creatures. In fact, the creatures are known through Allah.’ The Imam (as) said, ‘You have spoken the truth.’[Al-Kafi, Kitab-ul-Hujjah,hadith#426]

In order for a thing [شئى] to be known, that thing must first exist in some way in order for it to become known, because something which does not exist in any manner, cannot be known in any way, and therefore no knowledge pertaining to such a thing can be had, and hence that which is non-existent in every manner [معدوم مطلق] will be unknown in every way [مجهول مطلق]. Now here one may state that it is not necessary for a thing to exist, in order for it to be known, because there are many things which do not have any actual-existence [وجود خارج] in reality but are nevertheless known to the intellect through concepts and notions [], for instance 'Sharik-al-Bar'i' [شريك بارى] does not have any actual-existence but still the mind is able to know it as a concept, and the same could also be said of a flying-horse etc; it is important to understand that when it is asserted that, that which does not exist in any manner cannot be known in any way, so this assertion includes both actual as well as mental existence [وجود ظهنى], and not merely actual existence, therefore while it is true that things such as a 'Sharik-al-Bar'i' and a flying-horse do not have any actual existence in reality, nevertheless they do have mental-existence in the mind as concepts and notions, and therefore do exist in some manner, and hence can be known to the extent that they exist; in other words these things do not fall into the category of things that do not have any share in existence in any manner possible, and are therefore not absolutely non-existent.

This demonstrates that the notion of knowledge [مفهوم علم] is inextricably related to the notion of existence [مفهوم وجود], such that in order for a thing to become known it must first exist in some manner, therefore knowledge pertaining to something is a consequence of it's existence, in other words that which renders something knowable [معلوم] is its existence. This existence due to which every contingent-essence [ماهيت] that can be known, becomes knowable, is derived from Pure-Being [وجود محض] who is the Source and the Origin [مبداء] of all contingent-existences and the Fountain from which flows the spring of being, upon all who are endowed with being, therefore the meaning of the statement "the creatures are known through Allah" in the above tradition has now been made evident. Since existence is the factor that renders essences knowable, and all existence emanates [صدور] from Pure-Existence, therefore all essences become knowable through the Divine.