Attributes of Essence and Attributes of Actions

Even in His Essence, and before anything existed, Allah, our Lord, the High and the Mighty, possessed all knowledge. Even in His Essence, and before a sound could be heard, He was All-Hearing. Even in His Essence, when there was nothing to be seen, He was All-Seeing. Even in His Essence, when there was no physical existence, He was Omnipotent. Although they existed prior to creation, it was only creation that these attributes manifested themselves: His Hearing upon the heard, His Seeing upon the seen, and His Omnipotence over the physical world. He says: I asked, “Then, Allah was not a Speaker?” He (AS) replied, “Verily, speech is an originated [muhdathah] attribute and not eternal [azaliyyah]. Allah, the Mighty and High, existed when no speakers existed.”

I asked Abu `Abd Allah al-Sadiq (AS): “Does Allah know everything from sempiternity?”He (AS) replied, “What was He to know when there was nothing to be known?” He says, I asked, “Does Allah hear from sempiternity?” He (AS) answered, “Who was He to hear when there was nothing to be heard?” He says, I asked, “Does Allah see from sempiternity?” He (AS) responded, “Who was He to see when there was nothing to be seen?” Then he (AS) said: “Allah has always been AllKnowing, All-Hearing, All-Seeing, sempiternally, and the Possessor of the Knowledge of Hearing and Seeing.”

“Allah, the Blessed the Exalted, has always been All-Knowing, All-Powerful, Ever-Living [hay], Ever-Lasting [qadim], All-Hearing, and All-Seeing.” I asked him “O son of the Messenger of Allah! There is a group that says: `Allah has always been All-Knowing with Knowledge, All-Powerful with His Might, Ever-Living with His Life, EverLasting with His Past, All-Hearing with His Hearing, and All-Seeing with His Sight.” Thus, he (AS) replied, “Verily, whoever says this and believes in it is a polytheist. He is not under our Guardianship at all.” He then added, “Allah, the Mighty and High, has always been AllKnowing, All-Powerful, Ever-Living, Ever-Lasting, All-Hearing, and all-Seeing by His Essence. Exalted is He, the Elevated, the Great, from what the polytheists and anthropomorphists say.”

He, the Mighty and High, is undoubtedly Existent. He is not vain or numerable, nor can He be described on the basis of the attributes of creation. He, the Mighty an High, possesses Qualities [nu`ut] and Attributes [sifat]. There are Attributes which apply to Him which can also be applied to the created such a hearing [sami`], seeing [basir], affectionate [ra`ur], merciful [Rahim], and their likes. Whereas the Qualities are qualities of Essence; they do not befit anyone but Allah, the Blessed and Exalted. Allah is Light as there is no darkness in Him. He is Ever-Living as there is no death for Him. He is All-Knowing as there is no ignorance in Him. He is Needless [Samad] as there is no need in Him. Our Lord is Light by Essence, Ever-Living by Essence, All-Knowing by Essence, and Needless by Essence.

Verily, Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, was there when there was nothing but Him. He was Light as there was no darkness in Him. He was the Truth as there was no falsehood in Him. He was Omniscient as there was no ignorance in Him. He was the EverLiving as there was no death in Him. And that is how He is today, and that is how He will remain forever.

Verily, Allah, there is no god but He, is Ever-living, but not in terms of quality or place. He is not in thing or on anything. He has not created for His Position any space. He is not strengthened through creation. Nothing that he has created is like Him. He was not powerless over things before their creation, not will He be powerless over them after they have gone. He, the Mighty and High, is the Ever-Living god without accidental existence. He is the Sovereign before creating something and He is its Master after creating it. Allah does not have any limits. He is not recognized by a thing that may be His like. He is not subject to aging. He does not raise His Voice to invoke anything, and with His Fear all things become stunned. Allah is Ever-Living, and not the product of accidental existence or a depicted existence. He neither has a restricted quality, nor a still space, but He is Ever-Living by Himself and the Master who is Eternally Omnipotent. He created what He willed when He willed, with His Will and Power. He is the First without any quality, and the Last without any space. Everything is perishable but He (His face). His is the creation and the command; blessed is the Lord of the worlds.

Allah’s name is other than Him. The identifier is always other than the identified. Since very identifier is created, it is other than Allah. Everything which is uttered by tongues or produced by hands is created. Allah is the destination of whoever seeks Him. The aimer is other than the aimed. The aimed is described, and every description is created. The Creator of all Things is not described through the limitations of the named. He is not formed so that His Formation may be known through the creation of others. If He is aimed, what is aimed is other than Him. He is never disregarded by those who understand this conclusion, and that is pure unity. Thus, have faith in Him, accept Him, and try to understand Him with the permission of Allah, the Mighty and High. Whoever claims that he has recognized Allah through a veil, an image or a similarity, is a polytheist because veil, image and similarity are other than Him. Verily, He is One United Being. Therefore, how can one profess to believe in Divine Unity if he claims to have recognized Him by means of other than Him? Only he has recognized Allah who recognizes Him by means of Allah (Himself). Thus, whoever does not recognize Him through Him has not recognized Him, and has certainly recognized other than Him. Allah is the Creator of All Things and is not from a thing. He is named by His Names. Hence, He is other than His Names, and His Names are other than Him. The described is other than the describer. Therefore, whoever claims that he knows what he does not recognize is ignorant. The created do not comprehend anything but by means of Allah, and they do not comprehend the recognition of Allah but by Allah. Allah is free from His Creation, and His Creation is free from Him. If Allah intends something, it is as He intends it by His Command, and without utterance. There is no refuge for His servants from what He decrees. There is no argument for them in what He sanctions. They do not have power over an action or treatment from what He brings forth in their created bodies except by their Lord. Thus, whoever claims that he has strength over an action that Allah, the Mighty and High, does not intend, he has claimed that his intent has overcome the Intent of Allah. Blessed is Allah the lord of the Worlds!

I asked al-Sadiq Ja`far ibn Muhammad (AS), “Inform me about Allah, the Blessed and Exalted. Has He sempiternally been All-Hearing, All-Seeing, All-Knowing, and All-Powerful?” He (AS) replied, “Of course.” Hence, I asked him, “There is a man who professes to be a friend of the Household of the Prophet (AS) and says: `Verily, Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, has always been All-Seeing with an ear, All-Hearing with an eye, All-Knowing by Knowledge, and AllPowerful with power.” He (AS) became angry and then said: “Verily, whoever says this and believes in it, is a polytheist and is not under our Guardianship at all. Verily, Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, is the Possessor of the Knowledge of Hearing, Seeing, and Omnipotence.”

“Among the attributes of the Being without beginning [qadim] are that He is One, Unique, Needless, Unique in meaning, and not subject to multiple meanings.” He says: I asked him, “May I be your ransom! A group of Iraqis claim that He hears with something other than what He sees, and He sees with something other than what He hears from.” Thus, he (AS) replied, “They have lied, apostatized, and anthropomorphized. Exalted is Allah from that! Verily, He is All-Hearing, and All-Seeing. He hears with what He sees, and He sees with what He hears.” He says: I asked, “They claim that He is All-Seeing as they see.” Thus, he (AS) replied, “Exalted is Allah! Verily, Allah cannot be understood by means of human qualities.”

“Do you say that He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing?” Thus, Abu `Abd Allah (AS) replied, He is All-Hearing, and All-Seeing. He is All-Hearing and AllSeeing, but without the use of visual or auditory organs. Rather, He hears by Himself, and He sees by Himself. My statement is not that He hears by Himself in the sense that His Hearing is one thing, and His Self is another. Rather, my goal is to respond to what I was asked using terminology that can be readily understood. Hence, when I say that He hears by means of His Entire Essence, I say so to stress that He is not composed of parts. MY goal is to make you understand. My only other recourse would be to say that He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing, AllKnowing, and All-Aware without any conflict between essence and concept.

I asked Abu Ja`far al-Baqir (AS): May I be taken as your ransom! I hope that you can tech me. Prior to creation, did Allah, may His Remembrance be Exalted, know that He was One? Your followers have a dispute regarding this issue. Some of them say: “The Blessed and Exalted surely knew that He was alone before He created anything from His Creation/” While others say: “Verily, the meaning of knowing is doing. Therefore, He knows today that there was no one other than Him before He created the thngs.” And they say: “If we prove that He has always known that ere was none but Him, then we have proved that there was other than Him in sempiternity [azaliyyah]. If you could be so kind, O my Master, to teach me whether the truth is other than this. Thus, he (AS) wrote: “Allah, the Exalted, has always been All-Knowing, Blessed and Exalted be His Remembrance.”

I heard Abu Ja`far al-Baqir (AS) say: “Allah was there when there was nothing other than Him. He has always been All-Knowing of what He has created. Therefore, His Knowledge of things before their being is exactly the same as His Knowledge of things after their creation.”

I wrote to Abu al-Hasan al-Naqi (AS) asking him about Allah, the Mighty and High: “Did He have knowledge of things before He created them or did He know them only after He created them?” He (AS) wrote in his own handwriting: “Allah’s knowledge of things was the same before He created them and after He created them.”

I entered into the presence of Abu `Abd Allah al-Sadiq (AS) so he asked me: “Can you describe Allah?” Hence, I replied, “Yes.” He (AS) said: “Give me your description.” So, I answered, “He is the All-Hearing and the All-Seeing.” He (AS) explained, “There are attributes which equally apply to the created.” I asked, “Then how do you describe Him?” Thus, he (AS) said: “He is Light as there is no darkness in Him. He is Ever-Living as there is no death in Him. He is the Omniscient as there is no ignorance in Him, and He is the Truth as there is no false in Him.” Then I left from his presence and I was the most learned of people with regard to Divine Unity.

I asked him: “Has Allah always existed?” Thus, he (AS) replied, “Verily, the Willer can only exist if He has a Will. In fact, He has always been All-Knowing, All-Powerful, then He intended.”

I asked Abu `Abd Allah al-Sadiq (AS): “Are the Knowledge and Will of Allah separate or united?” Thus, he (AS) replied, The Knowledge of Allah is not the same as the Will of Allah. Do you not say that you will do something `Allah willing’, yet you do not say that you will do something `Allah knowing.’ Therefore, your statement `Allah willing’ is a proof that He did not will it, If He had willed, it would have been as He had willed. Allah’s Knowledge is prior to Allah’s Will.

“Inform me about the Will. Is it a part of Allah or is it of the Creation? Hence, he (AS) answered, The will is part of the created conscience, and it manifest itself in action. As for Will of Allah, the Mighty and High, then it is His Making [ihdath] and none other than that because He does not reflect, does not imagine, and does not think. These attributes cannot be applied to Him as they are attributes of creation. Thus, Allah’s Will is action and nothing else. He says to it: “Be and it is,” without a word or speech expressed by tongue, by imagination or by thought. His Will is expressed without form in the same way that He is without form.

“The will is accidental [muhdathah].”

“Allah created the Will itself, then created everything by means of the Will.” The Compiler of this book (RA) says: If we attribute Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, with Attributes of Essence, then each one of these attributes negates its opposite. Thus, when we say: He is Ever-Living, we have negated from Him the opposite of life, which is death. When we say: He is all-Knowing; we have negated from Him the opposite of knowledge, which is ignorance. When we say: He is AllHearing; we negate from Him the opposite of hearing, which is deafness. When we say: He is AllSeeing; we negate from Him the opposite of seeing, which is blindness. When we say: He is the Honorable; we negate from Him the opposite of honor, which is dishonor. When we say: He is the All-Wise; we negate from Him the opposite of wisdom, which is error. When we say: He is the Self-Sufficient; we negate from Him the opposite of self-sufficiency, which is neediness. When we say: He is Just; we negate from Him oppression and tyranny. When we say: He is the Forbearing; we negate from Him impatience. When we say: He is the Omnipotent; we negate from Him incapability. If we did not do that we would have proved Him with things that have always been with Him. When we say “He has always been Ever-Living, All-Knowing, All-Hearing, All-Seeing, Honorable, All-Wise, Self-Sufficient, Sovereign, Forbearing, Just, and Generous [karim]” we have used these Attributes of Essence in order to negate their opposites. We have proved that Allah has always been the One and Only. The Intent, the Will, the Pleasure, the Wrath or any of the other Attributes of Action are of the same intensity as the Attributes of Essence because it is not permissible to say: Allah has always been the Intender and the Willer, like it is permissible to say: Allah has always been Omnipotent and All-Knowing.