Imam Reza (as) On Divine Unity-part 3

Imam Reza (as) states in his sermon on Divine Unity:
”كُلُّ مَعْرُوفٍ بِنَفْسِهِ مَصْنُوعٌ وَكُلُّ قَائِمٍ فِي سِوَاهُ مَعْلُولٌ“
translation: “Everything that can be known in itself (binafsih) is fashioned (masnu’). All that stands apart from Him is an effect (ma’lul)” [Uyun-al-Akhbar,chapter#11,hadith#51]

To know [عرفان] something is equivalent to grasping its essence [ ماھيۃ ] which is the answer to the question ‘what is it?’ [ما ھوا] and if it is possible for the intellect [ عقل ] to grasp [درک] the essence of a thing by abstracting [عقلى انتزاع] it from its existence so this is evidence of the fact that existence [وجود] is not integral to [ عين ذات ] and inseparable from the essence of the thing and is in truth distinct and separable from its existence, and everything which is such relates to existence as a subject [ موضوع ] relates to an accident [ عرض ] in intellectual consideration [ عقلى اعتبار ], being only accidental to the essence and not necessary [ واجب ] for it ; therefore if it were possible for the intellect to know God by grasping His Essence through the process of abstraction, from His Existence so this would be evidence of the fact that existence is not integral to, necessary and inseparable from His Essence but is distinct and separable from it, and in case of every existent if existence is not necessary for its essence so such an essence is said to be contingent [ممکن بالذات] and hence an effect of a cause, whereas God is a Necessary Being whose Essence is identical to and indistinct from, His Existence such that His Essence is His Existence, and existence cannot become the subject of thought because that which is encompassed or grasped by he mind is the essence of a thing not its existence which cannot be imported within the mind. Therefore if a thing’s essence can become the subject of thought and can be apprehended by the intellect, so this is proof of the contingency of that thing or its being possible in essence, as is stated by the Imam (as) “everything that can be known in itself (binafsih) is fashioned (masnu’)”.
A thing that exists is either necessary in essence or possible in essence but since there can only be One Necessary being in Itself, everything else that exists besides Him must be possible in essence or contingent [ ممکن بالذات ] and only necessary through another [ واجب بالغير ], meaning The One [ واحد ] because that which is only possible in essence does not does not begins to exist unless its existence is first necessitated by a cause, and if this cause also happens to be contingent then it would also be in need of a cause for coming into being, but due to the impossibility of infinite regress [ تسلسل ] this causal chain must end at a being Necessary In Itself.

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