Divine Perception

Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from Muhammad ibn Khalid al-Tayalisi from Safwan ibn Yahya from ibn Muskan from abu Basir who said the following:

“I heard Abu ‘Abd Allah (as),saying;
”لم يزل الله عز و جل ربنا و العلم ذاته و لامعلوم و السمع ذاته و لامسموع و البصر ذاته ولامبصر و القدرته ذاته و لامقدور“
translation: “The Exalted, the Glorious, Allah, our Lord, is eternal. Knowledge [العلم] is His Self [ذاته] even if there is nothing to be known [معلوم ]. Hearing is His Self even if there is nothing to be heard [مسموع]. Seeing is His Self even when there is nothing to be seen [مبصر]. Power is His Self even if there is nothing to exercise the power [مقدور]” [Al-Kafi,kitab-ul-tawhid,hadith#286]

Human knowledge [علم] is empirical [حسى] in nature, because our knowledge of the sensible objects [محسوسات] existing around us comes to us by means of sense-perception [حسى ادراك], for instance one’s knowledge of how an apple tastes comes from his experience of consuming an apple, and so one who has never had an apple can never tell how an apple tastes like; similarly our knowledge of colors is acquired by means of sight, but he who is blind from the day of his birth cannot give us any idea of the color red because he has had no prior experience of it, in fact even one with sight will not be able to describe the color red if he has never had any perception of it before; therefore a significant share of human-knowledge [علم انسانى] is derived from sense-perception, and sense-perception is in turn dependent [محتاج] upon the existence [وجود] of sensible objects, to the extent that if the sensible things are rendered non-existent [معدوم], so no sense-perception relating to them would occur and consequently no knowledge would be realized [متحقق], and hence we can have no knowledge concerning things that do not yet exist.

If Divine Knowledge [علم الاهى] is said to be similar in character to human-knowledge so it would also become dependent upon the existence of knowable things for its realization, but dependence or reliance [احتياج] upon another [غير] implies imperfection [نقص] in the Essence [ذات] and the non-existence [عدم] of some good [خير], the absence of which is the cause of the imperfection; this would render the Divine a composite [مركب] of existence & non-existence, perfection [كمال] and privation and every composite is necessary through another [واجب بالغيره] and thus cannot simultaneously be Necessary in Itself [واجب بالذات], and that which exists but is not Necessary in Itself, has to be essentially-contingent [ممكن بالذات].

If Divine Knowledge is rendered dependent upon the existence of knowable things for its realization, so God would only possess knowledge of things existent [موجودات], and would have no knowledge concerning thing’s non-existent [معدومات], since not all things are eternal [قديم]; this would result in His being a composite of knowledge and Ignorance [جهل] thus giving rise to the objections mentioned in the preceding para.

Moreover the prior non-existence of things at one time and their subsequent existence at some other time would cause knowledge pertaining to these things to occur [حدوث] in the Divine Essence after previously having been non-existent therein; this would imply a change [تغير] or motion [حركت] in the Essence thereby rendering it changeable [متغير], but that which is changeable must first bear the potential/possibility [قوة/امكان] for change or motion, and this potential for change must inhere in some existent-actuality [فعلية], thus rendering God once again a composite of actuality & potentiality, the impossibility of which has already been made evident.

Every moving thing [متحرك] requires a mover [محرك] for its transition from potentiality to actuality, unless it is mobile by its own essence [متحرك بالذات], so God being a changeable existent would also either be dependent upon some external mover for being moved from a state of not-knowing to a state of knowing and for transitioning from a state of potentiality to actuality, or He would be mobile in His Essence itself, in which case He would have to be identical to nature [طبيعت] or matter [مادة], but this is impossible as God is far above having any similarity [تشبيح] with such base and ignoble things.

The truth is that God’s knowledge, hearing [سماعة], sight [بصارة] & power [قدرة] are not dependent for their realization in the Divine Essence on external things because these attributes [صفات] are not existentially distinct and separate from the Essence [زائد بر ذات], but are rather identical to the Essence [عين ذات] such that the Necessary Being Is knowledge, hearing, sight and power in its Essence itself without these attributes attaching to the Essence as its consequents, as is stated by the Imam (as) “Knowledge [العلم] is His Self [ذاته] even if there is nothing to be known [معلوم ]. Hearing is His Self even if there is nothing to be heard [مسموع]. Seeing is His Self even when there is nothing to be seen [مبصر]. Power is His Self even if there is nothing to exercise the power [مقدور]”. Therefore God eternally knows every knowable by knowing His Essence, because the existence of every knowable is an out-pouring and an over-flowing from Pure-Existence [وجود محض].

Oh how blessed are the Shi'ites who have such beautiful intellects as their Imams (as).