The Path to “Understanding God”

Normal Impossibility: That the occurrence of which seems impossible with respect to known natural laws, but whose realization is neither essentially impossible nor necessitates an essential impossibility. Transformation of a wooden staff into a snake, curing the sick without medicine, and speech of inanimate beings are several examples of normal impossibilities.27
Bearing in mind the above explanations, God’s power does not encompass essential and accidental impossibilities, and all questions that are asked within the omnipotence paradox regarding the power of God in performing various acts are accidental impossibilities. For example, if we thoroughly contemplate the true nature of creation—which is called causality in philosophy—we realize that the Creator—i.e. the existence-giving cause—transcends all aspects of the creature—i.e. the effect. More specifically, the existence and all qualities and characteristics of creatures are dependant upon their Creator. Thus, supposing a creature whose creator cannot alter or destroy, necessitates supposing a situation in which the“creator” simultaneously be and not be the creator which is clearly a contradiction. Accordingly, creation of a stone that the creator cannot lift or creation of a being that the creator cannot destroy is an accidental impossibility and as we have already stated, Divine Power does not encompass accidental impossibilities.
It could be stated thus that the result of the above analysis is nothing but the acceptance of the finitude of God’s power, but it is essential to keep in mind that the exclusion of essential and accidental impossibilities from the realm of God’s power is in no way a limiting factor for divine power because essentially these things are not capable of being originated and therefore are beyond the encompassment of any type of power. Consequently, it is stated that, in essence, the definition of shay’ (thing) does not include logical impossibilities, and thus Qur’anic phrases such as “God is capable of all things” are not subject to these impossibilities.28 In other words, the deficiency and limitation pertains to the “acceptant” not the “subject”.29
As a summary of our answer to the “omnipotence paradox”, we could state that these paradoxes are logical impossibilities and thus cannot be associated with power. However, this non-association is not a fundamental flaw of divine power; on the contrary, the limitation is embedded in the nature of these things.
It is significant to note that in Islamic Traditions, the answers to various forms of the omnipotence paradox are indicative of the same answer that we have proposed. According to a Hadith, in reply to someone who asked:
“Can your Lord place the world into an egg without shrinking the world or enlarging the egg?”
Imam ‘Alī (‘a) replied:
“Verily, God, the Blessed, the Sublime, cannot be attributed with weakness; rather, what you have asked me cannot come to pass.”30
According to the answer of Imam ‘Alī (‘a), the objective of the question itself is an impossibility. However, he explains that this does not entail weakness and impotence in God; rather, it rises from the fact that the goal in question is logically impossible and thus, in essence, not capable of coming into being.
Notes:
1. – The philosophical basis of this reasoning is that knowledge and understanding require a type of encompassment of knowledge by the scholar and because a limited being cannot encompass an unlimited essence, no limited being can gain knowledge of an unlimited essence.
2. – به كنه ذاتش خرد برد پي اگر رسد خس به قعر دريا
3. – Sūrah Ṭāhā20:110. This interpretation is based upon the assumption that the Arabic pronoun “ه” (him/it) in the compound “بِهِ” (about him) refers to God.
4. – Alḥuwaīzī,Tafsīr-e Nūr u-Thaqalaīn, vol. 3, p. 394, Tradition 117.
5. – Sūrah Ḥashr 59:23-24.
6. – Utilization of the Qur’an in order to understand the attributes of God necessitates basic acceptance of several issues including the prophethood of Muḥammad (ṣ), his being chosen by God, and proof of several attributes of God, including truthfulness—upon which the veracity if the Qur’an is based.
7. – For examples see: Sūrah Nisā’ 4:82; Sūrah Muḥammad 47:24; and Sūrah Ṣād 38:29.
8. – Sūrah Dhārīyāt 51:56.
9. – Sūrah An‘ām 6:100.
10. – Nahj ul-Balāghah, sermon 49.
11. – Sūrah Anbiyā’ 21:25.
12. – “لا إِله إِلّا الله” (Sūrah Ṣāfāt 37:35; and Sūrah Muḥammad 47:19)
13. – “لا إِله إِلّا هو” (Sūrah Baqarah 2:163 and 2:255; and Sūrah Āli ‘Imrān 3:2, 3:6, 3:18)
14. – “لا إِله إِلّا انا” (Sūrah Naḥl 16:2; and Sūrah Anbīyā’ 21:25)
15. – Sūrah Ra‘d 13:36.
16. – It must be said that by deeds and actions we intend a more general meaning than external actions. This meaning also includes internal states and behaviors such as love and faith.
17. – In favor of brevity, we shall refrain from further elucidation in this book.
18. – Sūrah Mulk 67:14.
19. – Rhetorical questioning is a sort of questioning in which the speaker propounds a question in such a way that its answer is in the negative.
20. – Sūrah Baqarah 2:282.
21. – Sūrah Ḥadīd 57:4.
22. – Sūrah Āli ‘Imrān 3:29.
23. – Nahj ul-Balāghah, sermon 198.
24. – “الحَمدلله مُنتَهى عِلمِهِ” This statement presupposes that there is an extent or boundry for God’s Knowledge whereas in fact there is no limit to His Knowledge [editor].
25. – “لا تَقُل ذلِكَ فَإِنَّه لَيسَ لِعِلمِهِ مُنتَهى” (Shaīkh Ṣadūq, At-Tawḥīd, chap. 10, Tradition 1).
26. – Contradiction is the contemporaneous existence and nonexistence of an object—with the preservation of conditions that are set in logic and philosophy. According to many thinkers, the impossibility of a contradiction is the most axiomatic intellectual principle, whose refutation would cause the collapse of all human knowledge.
27. – The miracles of divine prophets are considered normal impossibilities. Through contemplation of the nature of these events, it can be realized that these occurrences oppose the normal workings of nature and the causal system of the world, but they are realized through unknown specific supernatural causes. Thus, it may be stated that normal impossibilities are not truly impossible; rather, our lack of knowledge regarding their specific causes, result in them being considered as a division of impossibilities.
28. – ﴿اِنَّ اللهَ على كُلِّ شىءٍ قَديرٌ﴾
29. – According to philosophers, the ability of the subject—i.e. God—in performing the act is absolute, whereas the acceptant—i.e. logical impossibility—is not capable of undergoing the act.
هر چه هست از قامت ناساز بي‌اندام ما است ورنه تشريف تو بر بالاي كس كوتاه نيست
All problems arise from our lack of understanding;
You are All-powerful and All-encompassing.
For further elucidation, contemplate this example: Consider a master of potter who can fashion the most beautiful of pots from clay. Instead of clay, some water is given to him and he is asked to make a pot. It is self-evident that the potter will not be successful in the least in making a pot. Clearly, this cannot be attributed to his inability or inexperience and his status as master cannot be doubted because, essentially, what he has been provided with does not have the capability of being altered into a pot. Naturally, we admit that this example and similar examples are inherently different from the issue of our discussion—the power and ability of God. Nonetheless, because of its similarity, it can be considered as an analogy in order to understand better the subject under discussion.
30. Shaīkh Ṣadūq, Al-Tawḥīd, chap. 9, Tradition 6.