Mouood Mouood English Edition
3. God’s Divine Self
The holy messenger has said: “We could not understand You (God) to the extent worthy of Your cognizance”.
Note: No one has comprehension of God’s Self (ذات خدا)but all mankind by human nature loves and worships God and seeks His help when in danger and despair.
Men can understand some attributes of God as indicated in the holy Quran, such as, God is Beneficent & Merciful. He is Just Loving & Praiseworthy. He is the Best Protector & so on. (Please see hadith 40. )
4. God the creator
Hazrat Fatima Zahra (S.A) has narrated: God commenced Creation of things without any material that existed before. He created them without any model or specimen for imitation. He brought them into existence by His powerful creative ability. He created them according to His inclination without His need for them and without any benefit to Him in giving them shape and image except to establish His wisdom and to prompt His obedience and to demonstrate His power of creation and to guide all His creations how to worship Him and How to glorify His inviting call with veneration.
Note: a) God created everything out of nothing just by His intention, e.g. He created a very beautiful bird peacock just by His intention “Be & it came into existence immediately”. (Kun fayakun) (Yaseen36: A82)
5. God is visible in every creation
Replying to the letter of Harun, the `Abbasid ruler, in which he had asked for a brief sermon ,Imam al-Kazim (A.S.) wrote:
• There is admonition in everything that you see in this world.
Note: Everything that you see preaches that it is created for some purpose and its intricacies bear an eloquent witness about its Creator.
Nothing that you see is everlasting. All animate and inanimate objects are created by God’s will and they shall eventually perish.
The sky with the Milky Way, planets and stars floating in the space with perfect harmony give us a lesson and affect also our lives. They cause tides, eclipses and changes in climate. Life is impossible without the sun, air, rainwater for agriculture and so on & so forth.
The seeds, which germinate and grow up as plants and trees produce flowers and fruits having different shape, color, fragrance and taste exactly as desired by God. There is a lesson from them for perfect obedience to God.
Animals, birds, fishes, worms, pests and microbes—all of these give wonderful lessons to us. Snakes and scorpions have poisons for defending themselves. Their poison is a blessing for them. Vaccines are made out of these poisons for treating some diseases.
Eggs contain two liquids; yellow and white, but when hatched they produce birds, cocks, hens, pigeons, parrots, pheasants, peacocks with beautiful feathers, and so forth. This is again a sermon for the wise.
Bees provide honey and wax and their poison is preventive against paralysis. God has organized their life so as to pollinate flowers .Bees build hexagonal cells of wax for the queen bee to lay eggs therein , and also for storage of honey, pollen and royal jelly. Man cannot create even a bee
Thus, there is sermon in everything for those who think , God is visible in every creation and in all directions.
6. God’s Throne Encircled
Imam Naqi (A.S.) has mentioned in Ziarat e Jamea Kabirah : God created you as lights & made you (the 14 immaculate souls) encircle His throne.
خلقکم الله انواراً فجعلکم بعرشه محدقين (14 معصومين)
Note : the 14 luminaries were created prior to the angels , they are closer to God than the angels. During the ascension of Prophet Mohammad (S.A.) the angel Gabriel told him that he cannot proceed farther than ,Sidratul Muntaha, and told the messenger of God to go ahead which means God’s messenger is superior to Gabriel.
Note :These guiding Lights (souls) of the best obedient human beings, although created thousands of years before Adam, were sent as the last divine guides (Messenger & Imams). Thus they are the first creations as well as the final guides from God on this earth. They witnessed all creations which were created by God from time to time as and when required.
7. Existence of God
A Hindu physician came to Imam Ja’far al Sadiq (A.S) for discussion about God. He said that his five senses cannot witness God therefore he denied God.
The Imam said: “I witness God because of the same five senses therefore one of us is correct.”
The Imam asked him: “Don’t you fear the wrath and punishment of God for denying Him?”
The physician replied; “There is no God to fear from.”
The Imam said: “If my belief is correct, would you give up your faithlessness which deserves severe punishment from God?”
The physician replied: “Certainly I would”.
The Imam asked him: “which one of us is more precautious and near the truth to avoid God’s wrath or punishment?”
The Hindu replied: “Of course you are more precautious, but your belief in God has no proof, whereas I am certain in my belief as I do not feel the presence of God.”
The Imam said: “You have denied God because of inability of your five senses, whereas I affirm the presence of God with this inability of the same five senses.”
The Hindu asked: “How is it that inability to comprehend God by your senses leads to the proof of God’s existence?”
The Imam said: “Everything that combines with another thing possesses a body but God does not possess a body, and whatever the eye perceives or the senses feel is not God. God should not be likened to the creations and basically human senses can never feel the presence of God.
The Imam then asked him: “Have you travelled in the skies or seen every place on the earth?”
The Hindu said: “No I have not” The Imam asked: “Well then how do you deny the presence of God when you have not searched every place in space?”
The Hindu said: “I do not know whether or not God is present in the places which I have not visited.”
The Imam said: “Now your denial has changed to suspicion and I hope your suspicion will change to acceptance of the existence of God.
The Hindu said: “I suspect all that I cannot encompass or grasp with my senses, so how is certitude acquired?”
The Imam said: “Certitude may be obtained with this myrobalan which is in your hand. Do you see its effectiveness as a medicine, as its effectiveness is not perceptible? How did the first tree of myrobalan came into existence? Tell me whether this myrobalan had come into existence by itself or its tree had germinated from its seed and the soil, sunlight, water and air were provided by someone else (God) for its growth into a tree?”
The Hindu said: “I do not say that all conditions for survival of this tree have been provided by itself.”
The Imam said: “Your suspicion that everything can be known by five senses is incorrect. It is intellect that comprehends, commands or prohibits and specifies benefits or harms of a thing.”
The Hindu said: “I do not believe that intellect without five senses can comprehend anything.”
The Imam said: “While sleeping your eyes are closed and your senses obviously do not work, but in dreams you see, hear, eat , drink , laugh, wander around cities and speak to your friends and relatives who are dead or alive. Tell me which of your senses are conscious of all these things in your dream?
