Imam Reza On Divine Unity-part 5

In the famous sermon on the doctrine of Divine Unity Imam Reza (as) states:
”وَأَدْوُهُ إِيَّاهُمْ دَلِيلٌ عَلَى أَنْ لا أَدَاةَ فِيهِ لِشَهَادَةِ الأَدَوَاتِ بِفَاقَةِ المادّين“
translation: “That He has created them possessing means (of accomplishing things) is proof that He has no means, for means are witness to the poverty of those who use them” [Uyun-al-Akhbar,chapter#11,hadith#51]

All corporeal agents are composites [مرکب] of matter [مادۃ] and form [صورۃ] where matter is denoted by the body [جسم] and form by the soul [نفس] because the soul is the form of the body and perfects it ; according to Mullah Sadra the soul which is corporeal in origination but spiritual in subsistence [جسمانيۃ الحدوث و روحانيۃ البقا] is extremely weak [ضعيف] in existential [وجودی] terms and due to this existential weakness it is dependent [محتاج] upon the material-body for its origination [حدوث], since the soul emanates [صدور] from the material-body just as a flower’s-fragrance emanates from the body of a flower ; the soul also needs the body for its acts [افعال] or for becoming an agent [فاعل] in actuality [فعليۃ] after being one only in potentiality [قوۃ] ; when the body moves to act, it is the soul that moves it, employing it as a means for the production of acts, such that it is the soul that sees through the eye, it is the soul that hears through the ear, and the same with all the other parts of the body ; the soul uses the body as an instrument and as a means for its actions, and the cause of the soul’s reliance upon the body is its ontological-weakness, due to which the soul is compelled to look beyond itself for seeking what it needs, and to seek assistance from and association with, something other than and external to itself, meaning the material-body ; it is precisely because the soul does not finds within it’s own self that which it needs for its perfection [کمال] and completion, that it is forced to seek it external to itself ; but God being Absolute-Perfection [کمال مطلق] and the Absolute-Good [خير مطلق] in Itself is in the words of Avicenna, not only complete and perfect but beyond completion and perfection [فوق کمال], which means that He not only possesses the perfection and good necessary for His Own Essence but also possesses the perfection and completion in excess of that which is necessary for His Own perfection and completion ; it is from this overflow of abundance in goodness and excess perfection that the cosmos, the entire contingent-realm [عالم امکان] emanates from the Divine without God employing or using any means other than His Essence for causing His act ; Divine agency or causality functions independently off matter without utilizing it as a means or as an instrument for producing its acts because the sole means or instrument of divine causality or agency is His Essence [ذات] itself and not a combination of His Essence and some external source or means, as is explained in this tradition from Imam Reza (as) “You cannot say that God created things using His Might since when you say that God has created things using His Might, you are considering His Might to be something other than Him. Saying that God has created things using the Might He has had over them is like saying that God’s Might is something other than Him, and He has used it as a tool with which He creates. This is polytheism. When you say that God has created things using some other Might, it is as if you consider that Might to be separate from Him and He gets His Power over things using it. However, God is neither weak and incapable, nor is He in need of others. He is Glorified, and Mighty in nature, and not via an external power" [Uyun Akhbar Ar Ridha,Vol#1,chapter#11,hadith#7] ; reading this tradition in conjunction with the one stated above makes it evident that to think that divine causality or agency functions by some means other than and external to, the Divine Essence implies dependence of the Essence upon something other than itself ; it implies a seeking beyond itself, and dependence or seeking is indicative of a privation [نقص] of some good or perfection as is also stated by the Imam (as) “means are witness to the poverty of those who use them”.