Allah (swt) knows the fate of all people, and at the same time we are sure that many people will end up in Hell, therefore, if one of those in Hell asks Allah (swt) why He created him, while He knew that he was going to end up there, what will be His answer?

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1) Punishment from Allah (swt) is a result of man willingly disregarding divine guidance and not listening to the call of the ”outer” and “inner” messengers.

2) The knowledge of Allah (swt) regarding the way His creatures will act in different situations, does not interfere with them being forced to choose the action in question, and in other words, Allah’s knowledge reveals His creatures’ course of action, nothing else.

The knowledge of Allah (swt) regarding the way His creatures will act in different situations, does not interfere with them being forced to choose the action in question, and in other words, Allah’s knowledge reveals His creatures’ course of action, nothing else.

3) Shaytan and other evil beings and people need to be created so that others have the chance of reaching spiritual perfection.

4) Although the creation of Shaytan and other evil people and things is a must, yet who plays this role is up to the individuals themselves.

The question of why Allah (swt) has created and punishes bad people, is one that goes back to the subject of man and free will. The question there is: ”No single person comes to this world by choice; all who come are forced to. On one hand, Allah (swt) knows the fate of each and every person, and on the other hand they have to act according to Allah’s (swt) knowledge or else that will necessitate the deficiency of Allah’s (swt) knowledge, which is impossible, therefore those who are bad, have no choice other than to be bad, so that His knowledge remains perfect; so how is this fact not in contradiction with free will?”

Here, we will discuss man and free will in order to reach a conclusion on the question:

1) Allah’s (swt) knowledge regarding the acts and behavior of His different creations doesn’t result in them being forced to do as He knows. For example, if you were to stand at a high point and watch someone drive their car, and could tell that if he/she were to continue driving at the same pace, it would surely end up in the car falling from a cliff, and after a few moments that actually happened, you wouldn’t be the one responsible just because you knew that it was going to happen. No one would say that your knowledge was the one that caused the accident. Knowing one’s fate because of his/her mistakes has nothing to do with you.

Allah (swt) isn’t the one who determines the bad or good destiny of others, and never assigns a bad destiny to anyone. This hadith by the great prophet of Islam (pbuh) has been narrated by many Islamic scholars: “The prophet (pbuh) said:

The Qadariyyah has been cursed by seventy thousand prophets (throughout history). It was asked: Who are the Qadariyyah? The prophet (pbuh) answered: Those who believe that they are forced to sin (because of the bad destiny that Allah (swt) has imposed on them) and that they will be punished because of these sins (that they have no control over).” [1]

2) It is more appropriate to say that Allah (swt) knows who will make good use of divine guidance when it comes and who will turn away from it, and that punishment in the hereafter (or even in this world) is a result of making the wrong choice regarding that guidance. Just like the experienced teacher who lists the elements of success for his students on the first day of class, but knows who will heed his advice and take it seriously and who won’t. Clearly, good grades and prizes will go to those who deserve them, and bad grades and all of the hardships that those grades entail, all will be for those who have asked for it with their actions. So the role that the teacher’s knowledge plays in such situation is to show him who will succeed and who won’t, and has nothing to do with forcing them to be lazy or strive for success.

This is why theologians say:

“Allah (swt) has knowledge regarding the obedience and disobedience of His servants, and this knowledge reveals and is determined by [2] the acts of His servants. [3]

3) If Allah (swt) was to not send any means of guidance to the people, and yet expected them to believe in and obey Him, one could object, but considering that He has sent both inner messengers (the sound intellect) and outer ones (the prophets, imams, books and scriptures and even scholars), who is the one to be truly blamed; the one who possesses many “lanterns” in the dark and still goes the wrong way, or the one who punishes him for breaking those precious and needed “lanterns”?

4) Life in this world is all about making the right choices, thus one can say that our fates are in our own hands and that it all depends on how much we strive and ask Allah (swt) for help and guidance.

5) Allah (swt) created man in order for him to reach perfection and salvation. Not only doesn’t the creation of Shaytan, who is always trying to misguide man, contradict this goal, but it is necessary, because development and perfection is always a result of struggle, clashes and conflict. [4]

6) Although the role jinni and human shaytans play is an important one in achieving the above mentioned goal, yet no one is forced to play this role, and whoever does so, does it willingly and in reality chooses to be so.

Even Shaytan (Iblis) himself wasn’t created as Shaytan, because he had lived with the angels for six thousand years [5] and was a great worshipper of Allah (swt), but despite this fact, he chose to go the wrong way as a result of his self-pride, distancing from Allah’s (swt) grace and mercy. The same goes with Yazid; he chose to go the wrong way, therefore he can no longer object to his creation and ask Allah (swt) why he was created, because the answer is that the role you were to play was a necessary one, but not one imposed on you; on the contrary, you are the one who chose to play it (so the role is a necessary one, but only those who choose to play it).

In other words, there must be bad people in this world so that others can reach perfection through the encounters they have with them. Take Imam Husein (as) for instance; there must be a Yazid in order for Imam Husein (as) and what he did to find true meaning; the situation he put Imam Husein (as) in was the one that allowed the imam to reach the high level of martyrdom. Yet, Allah (swt) has forced no one to be Yazid; it is Yazid himself who chooses to be the Yazid who committed one of the greatest atrocities of all time, therefore he can’t question Allah (swt) for who he is, because he himself is the one to blame.

7) The creation of man is a favor by Allah (swt) because of His never-ending grace. It is like for someone to arrange a great feast and invite others to take part in it without asking them for anything else. Now if there are people who willingly decide not to attend and make use of the food there, resulting in their hunger, the one hosting the feast isn’t the one to be blamed and scolded just because he knew they wouldn’t come, because not inviting them at all, is worst and in that case they would probably claim that they would have come.

1). انه (ص) قال: لعنت القدريه علي لسان سبعين نبياً. قيل: و من القدرية يا رسول الله؟ فقال: قوم يزعمون ان الله قدر عليهم المعاصي و عذبهم عليها. (Biharul-Anwar, vol.5, pg.47)
(2). Determination here means that “the known” thing determines the knowledge itself: قال: و هو تابع بمعنى أصالة موازيه في التطابق.
أقول: اعلم أن التابع يطلق على ما يکون متأخرا عن المتبوع و على ما يکون مستفادا منه و هما غير مرادين في قولنا العلم تابع للمعلوم فإن العلم قد يتقدم المعلوم زمانا و قد يفيد وجوده کالعلم الفعلي و إنما المراد هنا کون العلم و المعلوم متطابقين بحيث إذا تصورهما العقل حکم بأصالة المعلوم في هيئة التطابق و أن العلم تابع له و حکاية عنه و أن ما عليه العلم فرع على ما عليه المعلوم و على هذا التقدير يجوز تأخر المعلوم الذي هو الأصل عن تابعه فإن العقل يجوز تقدم الحکاية على المحکي. (Kashful-Morad, pg.231)
(3). Khajeh Nasiruddin Tusi, Kashful-Morad, pg.230.
(4). Muhammad Bistooni, Shaytan Shenasi az Didgahe Qurane Karim, pg.17.
(5). Nahjul-Balaghah, the sermon of Qase’ah, 234.

Is the issue of eternal punishment compatible with justice of God?

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We know that the Holy Quran directly speaks of the eternal punishment to be given to the kufar. That is, it speaks about eternity.

“Allah has promised the hypocrites, men and women, and the faithless, the Fire of hell, to remain in it [forever]. That suffices them. Allah has cursed them, and there is a lasting punishment for them.” [1]

Just as in the following verse, the Quran promises the believing men and the believing women gardens in Paradise forever.

Allah has promised the faithful, men and women, gardens with streams running in them, to remain in them [forever], and good dwellings in the Gardens of Eden. Yet Allah’s pleasure is greater [than all these]; that is the great success. [2]

This question then arises and that is, how can one accept that in one’s lifetime of eighty or one hundred years, one commits evil deeds and then for eternity – millions of years – is punished.

Of course, this is not important as to rewards because the ocean of God’s Mercy is very great and however much greater is the reward, it shows greater virtue and mercy but as to evil deeds, they are punished for eternity because of limited sins. How can this be reconciled with God’s justice? Should a balance not exist between punishment and reward?

Answer

In order to reach a final solution to this discussion, several points need to be noted:

a. Punishments on the Day of Resurrection do not resemble punishments in this world. For instance, a person is found guilty of aggression and plunder and he spends some time in prison whereas the punishment at the Judgment day takes the form of efforts of one’s deeds and the particularities of a person’s acts.

In clearer terms, the difficulties which one bears in the other world are the direct result of his deeds. The Holy Quran explains this very clearly where it says,

So today no soul will be wronged at all, and you will not be recompensed except for what you used to do. [3]

With one simple example, we can visualize this truth that a person who goes after narcotics and alcoholic drinks and no matter how much one explains that these things will ruin him, and sicken his heart and destroy his nerves, he does not listen. He spends several weeks or months drowned in these killing pleasures and gradually develops ulcers, heart disease, nerve disease and then he spends tens of years until the end of his life suffering because of this and he groans night and day.

Can one object here why does a person who only sinned for several weeks or months have to suffer for tens of years?

It is readily stated in response that this is the result of his own actions. Even if he were to live longer than the Prophet Noah and were to live for tens of thousands of years and we were to continuously see him in pain and anguish, we would say that this is something he brought upon himself with his deeds.

Punishment on the Day of Judgment is like this. Thus, no one can object to the justice of the situation.

b. This is wrong that some people assume that the time limit of the punishment must be the same extent as the sin because the relation between a sin and punishment is not a temporal one. It depends upon the result and quality of the sin.

For instance, it is possible that a person in one second kills an innocent person and according to the laws of some countries, he is given life imprisonment. Here we see that the time of the sin was one quickly passing second, whereas the punishment is for tens of years. No one considers this to be oppressive. Why? Because the question here is not one of days or weeks or months or years. It depends upon the quality of the sin and its result.

c. Eternity in hell and eternal punishment only belongs to those people who have closed all doors to salvation for themselves and they have drowned themselves in corruption, licentiousness, kufr and hypocrisy so that the darkness of sin takes over their entire being and, as a result, that person takes on the color of sin and kufr.The Holy Quran says,

Why, they who have earned the wages of sin and are enclosed in error, are people of Hell, where they will abide for ever. [4]

These kinds of individuals have completely cut off their connection with God and have closed all doors to their salvation and well-being.

These kinds of individuals are like birds which purposefully break their own wings, pull out their feathers, are obliged to walk forever upon the earth and are deprived of flying through the skies.
Noticing the three points given above clarifies the issue that eternal punishment which belongs to a particular group of hypocrites or kufar does not oppose the principle of justice. This is the ominous result of their deeds themselves. The Divine Prophets had previously told them that their deeds would have these results.

It is clear that if individuals are ignorant and the invitation of the prophets are not known to them and if they commit evil deeds out of ignorance, they will not receive such a difficult punishment.

It is also necessary to point out that verses of the Holy Quran and Islamic Traditions mention that the ocean of Divine Mercy is so great and extensive that a large group of transgressors are included. Some by means of intercession; some by means of forgiveness and some because of small, good deeds which they performed. God, in His greatness, gives great reward for those small, good deeds

And another group, after they have been punished for a time in hell, and have been purified, they will return because of Divine Mercy. The only group remaining is the one which has enmity towards the truth and commit oppression, corruption and hypocrisy so that their whole being is covered in oppression, kufr and faithlessness.

1. (9:68)
{و عد الله المنافقين و المنافقات و الکفار نار جهنم خالدين فيها}
2. (9:72)
{وعد الله المومنين و المومنات جنات تجري من تحتها النهار خالدين فيها}
3. (36:54)
{فاليوم لا تظلم نفس شيئاو لا تجزون الا ما کنتم تعلمون}
4. (2:81)
{بلي من کسب سيئه و احاطت به خطيئته فاولئک اصحاب النار هم فيها خالدون}

One of the aspects of Tawhid (God’s unity) is unity in divinity. what does it mean?

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Most of the polytheists were agreed on the unity in creation. They were disagreed with monotheists on unity in divinity. At the time of His highness Abraham (a.s.) polytheists believed in one God but they thought in error that stars were the lord of the universe. According to the Holy Quran, His highness Abraham had a discussion with them about this matter, i.e. divinity of the heavenly bodies (the moon, the sun and the stars). (1)

At the time of His highness Joseph (a.s.) who lived after His highness Abraham (a.s.), polytheists did not believe in unity in divinity, too. They thought that after creating the universe God has left the management of it to another one. Therefore His highness Joseph (a.s.) has emphasized on the unity in divinity and said that:

O [my] two companions of prison, are separate lords better or Allah, the One, the Prevailing? (2)

The explanation of unity in divinity is that the management of the universe is not separated from the creation of it and in fact it’s management is it’s creation. Since the creator of the universe and the human is One so the managers of them will be One because there is a direct connection between the management and the creation of the universe. Therefore where God calls Himself the creator of all things, calls Himself the manager of them too and says that:

It is Allah who erected the heavens without pillars that you [can] see; then He established Himself above the Throne and made subject the sun and the moon, each running [its course] for a specified term. He arranges [each] matter; He details the signs that you may, of the meeting with your Lord, be certain. (3) (4)

1. Refer to the Holy Quran, Surah 6:76-78.
2. Quarn, Surah 12:39.
3. Quran, Surah 13:2.
4. Features of the Beliefs of Shia, p.58.
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One of the aspects of God’s unity is unity of divine attributes. What does it mean?

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Doubtlessly, the Exalted God has some attributes with which His perfect essence is described. For example, it is said that He is knowledgeable, powerful and alive. A human being also has these attributes. He is also knowledgeable, powerful and alive. But there are two main differences between God’s attributes and those of humanbeings:

1. Although these attributes, i.e. life, knowledge and power are different concepts, concerning the Exalted God they are one in the respect of reality, nature, i.e. the reality of knowledge is not separate from the reality of power and these two ones’ realities are not separate from life’s reality. God’s essence is totally knowledge, power and life. But regarding a human being, these attributes are different from each other. The reality of knowledge is different from the reality of power and these two ones’ realities are different from the reality of being alive. Therefore, God’s attributes are one and there is not any separation between them in the respect of reality.

2. As the realities of God’s attributes are one, His attributes and His essence are one, too. God’s attributes are just His essence and are not added to it and not separate from it. But a human being should acquire these attributes. At first, he is a human, not a learned and powerful man but then he acquires knowledge and power. (1)

1. Features of the beliefs of Shiah, p.55.

Why was only justice, from among all Divine Attributes, selected as one of the five pillars of religion?

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In this article, I would like to make this point clear as to why the great ‘ulama consider justice, one of God’s Qualities, to be a principle among the five pillars of religion.
God is the Knower (Alim), Powerful (Qadir), Just (Adil), Wise (Hakim), Merciful (Rahman), Compassionate (Rahim), Primordial (Azali), Eternal (Abadi), Creator (Khaliq) and Sustainer (Razzaq). Why was only justice selected from among all of these and it became one of the five pillars of religion?
In response to this important question, several points should be noted:

a. Among God’s Qualities, justice is so important that many other Qualities return to it because justice in the general, extensive sense means ‘putting everything in its place’. Here, then, Hakim, Razzaq, Rahman and Rahim, and similiar Qualities, are all dependent upon it.

b. Resurrection – just as we have mentioned – is related to Divine Justice as well as the mission of the Prophet and the responsibility of the Imams.

c. At the beginning of Islam, a difference of Opinion arose over the issue of the justice of the Creator:
A group of the Sunni Muslims, who were called the Ash’arites, completely denied God’s justice. They said that justice and oppression make no sense in relation to God. He is the Ruler of the entire created universe. It belongs to Him and whatever He does is just. They did not even believe in the intellect’s good and evil. They said, “Our intellect alone cannot distinguish between good and bad, even the goodness of doing good or the evil of oppression…” and many such similar errors.

Another group of the Sunnis, who were called the Mu’tazilites, and all of the Shi’ites, believe in the principle of justice in relation to the Creator and they believe that God never commits oppression.
In order to separate out those two groups from one another, they called the second group, the Adliyah, in which justice (adl), as a principle, was the sign of the school and the first group were called ‘qhayr adliyah’ (other than justice). Shi’ites were among the ‘Adliyah.

The Shi’ites, in order to distinguish their school from that of the other Adliyah, placed imamate as one of the principles as well. Thus, wherever there is a discussion of ‘justice’ and ‘imamate’, this is in reference to the Shi’ite Imami School.

d. As the fundamentals of religion are continuous rays of the principles of religion and as the ray of justice of the Creator is extremely effective in human society, and the most important base for human society is formed by ‘social justice’, the selection or choice of the principle of justice as one of the principles of religion is a means to establish justice in human society and to struggle against any kind of oppression.
Just as the unity of Essence, Qualities of the Creator, the unity of worship of Him, the light and unity of His Oneness, a solidification of human society and the unity of Qualities are strengthened, the leadership of the prophets and imams is also inspired by the issue of ‘real leadership’ in human society. Thus, this principle of justice of the Creator, Who rules over the entire world, is the sign of the necessity for justice in all areas of human society.
The great created universe is based upon Divine Justice. Human society will also not remain without it.

Ref: Fifty Lessons of Principles of Belief for Youths; Ayt. Makarem Shirazi; Translated by: Bahador Shirazian; Published by: Ahlul Bayt World Assembly

One of the aspects of Tawhid (God’s unity) is unity in divinity. what does it mean?

/in , /by

Most of the polytheists were agreed on the unity in creation. They were disagreed with monotheists on unity in divinity. At the time of His highness Abraham (a.s.) polytheists believed in one God but they thought in error that stars were the lord of the universe. According to the Holy Quran, His highness Abraham had a discussion with them about this matter, i.e. divinity of the heavenly bodies (the moon, the sun and the stars). (1)

At the time of His highness Joseph (a.s.) who lived after His highness Abraham (a.s.), polytheists did not believe in unity in divinity, too. They thought that after creating the universe God has left the management of it to another one. Therefore His highness Joseph (a.s.) has emphasized on the unity in divinity and said that:

O [my] two companions of prison, are separate lords better or Allah, the One, the Prevailing? (2)

The explanation of unity in divinity is that the management of the universe is not separated from the creation of it and in fact it’s management is it’s creation. Since the creator of the universe and the human is One so the managers of them will be One because there is a direct connection between the management and the creation of the universe. Therefore where God calls Himself the creator of all things, calls Himself the manager of them too and says that:

It is Allah who erected the heavens without pillars that you [can] see; then He established Himself above the Throne and made subject the sun and the moon, each running [its course] for a specified term. He arranges [each] matter; He details the signs that you may, of the meeting with your Lord, be certain. (3) (4)

1. Refer to the Holy Quran, Surah 6:76-78.
2. Quarn, Surah 12:39.
3. Quran, Surah 13:2.
4. Features of the Beliefs of Shia, p.58.

What is meant by the Makr of Allah (scheming, plotting, planning) that has been mentioned in the Quran?

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“Makr” means to devise for good or evil and this is why it is described by the word “السَّيئ” (bad/evil) in the Quran.

Allah’s Makr

The many verses that attribute “Makr” to Allah refer to his supreme direction and regulation of matters. Since he is the true owner of all management, there is no devising separate from His. Therefore, Allah has supremacy over all planners as it is mentioned in the Quran:
“Allah is the best of planners.”
The Almighty also says in the Quran: Those who were before them [also schemed]; yet all devising belongs to Allah. He knows what every soul earns. Soon the faithless will know in whose favor the outcome of that abode will be. This verse clearly asserts that Allah is the supreme deviser and others’ thoughts and devising will do them no good in opposition to His.

What difference do God’s knowledge, power, justice and life make with the same attributes in human beings?

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God, the Exalted, is characteristic of such attributes (e.g. knowledge, power and life etc.) which indicate the perfection of His essence.

Man also possesses these characteristics and is qualified by them. He is powerful, knowledgeable and alive but with God’s permission. The qualities with which God is described and qualified are different from those of human qualities in two ways:

1- These attributes (knowledge, power and life) are various concepts but ontologically they are one and the same when ascribed to God. That is to say, they are over and above to God’s essence. The ontological status of God’s knowledge is not different from His power and these two attributes are not different from the attribute of life. God, the Sublime, is absolute knowledge, power and life whereas man is not as such. Man’s knowledge and power are different from his being alive.

2- In the same way that the actuality of God’s attributes does not make difference, God’s attributes and His essence are not separated from each other. God’s attributes are the same as His essence; they are not something additional to His essence. On the contrary, man’s qualities are additional to his essence because he had been a human being but had not been knowledgeable and powerful. He lacked power and knowledge. In fact, he acquired knowledge and power. In addition, man is a possible being and a possible being is limited in terms of existence. Man’s attributes are limited in the same way as his essence. Unlike man, God is a pure and infinite existent, so are His attributes.

For example, God’s power and will are infinite and at the same time He is not subjugated by the same system which He Himself created, there is both wisdom (hikmah) as well as expediency (maslaha) in His creation. The meaning of wisdom with respect to God is this that He creates things existentially perfect and with whatever attributes that are required for its perfection whereas wisdom with respect to man’s action means that he does an action so that he himself may reach his purpose and gain perfection. That is because the existence of the caused and its relation with the cause are not but one thing; they are not two things so that it could be assumed that they can be separated from each other. Therefore, when God, the Almighty, wills to create, He wills the particular causes which are equal to willing its relation with its particular causes until it reaches a cause which is connected with the ultimate Truth and the will of the ultimate truth is equal to willing all things, all relationships and all systems.

The attribute of wisdom (hikmah) when ascribed to God and to human beings, shall give two different meanings. Man’s being wise means that he has a purpose behind every task and he chooses the best goals and he adopts the best way and the best means to reach those goals. But God is absolutely Needless; He does not search for something nor does He need to attain anything because no perfection is assumed of which He might be devoid. His being Wise means that He does not create things absurdly and anything that He creates, He creates it in the most perfect way as far as possible. Thus, He creates things in such a fashion that they receive as much goodness and perfection as possible. To make a long story short, the divine wisdom is to be fundamentally associated with the aspect of goodness and perfection of a thing. He guides them towards secondary perfections which are another type of enabling things to attain their perfection.

In this regard, you can refer to theological and philosophical resources such as:
1- Islamic Beliefs by Ja’far Subhani;
2- Theological Instructions by Muhammad Taqi Misbbah Yazdi.

Does the Qur’an intend to identify God as the sensible and physical light when it says that God is the light of the heavens and the earth?

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1. Certainly, the by referring to Allah as light, the Qur’an does not intend to identify Him as a physical and sensory light because the sensible light is a part of the accident characteristic of matter whereas there are numerous arguments which negate the physicality of God, the Exalted, and which forbid us from considering God as a sensible and material light.

In addition, there are many Quranic verses which negate any similarity between God and anything else. Hence, if God has been described as being “the light of the Heavens and the earth”, the term “light” which refers to God is not and cannot be the sensory light.

2. Light is something which makes things visible; which is itself manifest and helps make other things manifest. The human mind conceives light in this very sense. Absence of light is termed darkness, invisibility and obscurity. On the other hand, when there is visibility and things become exposed to view, man says there is light. Allah has been called ‘Light’ in this basic sense. This conception of light has nothing to do with the reality of the meaning for which human mind has coined this word. If we analyze the meaning of light in relation to God, it would be correct to use for spiritual matters in the sense that they illuminate the soul. For example, the word “Eman” has been termed as “light” in the Quran which is granted to a believer.

3. Since God is manifest and clear and He is the Creator and the Illuminator of the heavens and the earth, it is correct to use the word “light” for God. In fact, it is the existence of everything that is the cause of its manifestness to others; the highest form of light is therefore existence itself. Moreover, since the existence of contingent beings depends on the bestowal of existence by the Truth, the Supreme, He is the most complete instance of light. It is He Who is essentially manifest and also makes manifest all other-than-him. All other existents become manifest and existent by virtue of Him.

4. By the expression “the heavens and the Earth”, what is intended is the entirety of the world of existence – all the celestial and the terrestrial existents; the apparent and the hidden worlds. “The heavens and the earth” does not merely signify the sky above and the Earth that we inhabit. Therefore, the meaning of the verse is that Allah is the Light of the entire universe. The reason why the verse has employed this word in lieu of the Creator is to point to the fact that just as light is itself visible and does not need anything else to make it visible, and it is light itself that illuminates all other things, likewise Allah has no creator and there is no other agent that could shed light on Him. He is a manifest, clear and self-evident existence. There is no need for formulating reasoning to prove His existence.

As propounded by the Gnostics in following the mystical teachings of the Prophets and the Imams, Allah is manifest to the highest degree; He is absolutely clear, and hence there is no need for the mediation of His creatures to reveal Him. In other words, in order to reason for the existence of Allah, one should utilize the argument of cause rather than the argument of effect.

Without the light of the Divine Essence, the shadow of non-existence would envelope all things; the resulting darkness would not be like that of the night (rather it would be the darkness of non-existence).

Hence, it must be said that Allah is absolute light. In comparison to Him, there is no other light. All other lights in comparison to Him are darkness. For the only existent Who is by His essence manifest and manifesting, is Allah. All other things that are manifest and that illuminate other creatures are by their essences dark. It is Allah Who has bestowed on them that feature. If He is not seen, it is because He is obscured by the intensity of His light.

5. Another point that can be inferred from this verse is that we refer to Allah as light, not as “the greatest light”, which implies that there are other lights as well, some more bright and others less bright, and that Allah is the greatest. According to the Qur’an, there is only one light and that is Allah, and everything else is dark and non-existent. It is true, however, that in comparing the creatures together, some are light and some are not – for instance, knowledge, faith, intellect etc., are light, but have all derived their light from Allah. Thus in comparison to Allah, there is no other light, or in other words, He is “the Light of Lights. That is, He is the light of all lights rather than being the greatest light. Therefore, the belief that Allah is the greatest light, that He is of the sensory lights but the brightest and the most intense – reputedly attributed to the Manicheans – is false.

6. There are different sayings, traditions and narratives in the interpretations concerning this verse. For information about them, one should refer to relevant books, exegesis (commentaries) and other textual sources.

Can you prove why God should be unlimited?

/in , /by

In order to answer the question, we must clarify the meaning of the infiniteness of God and His relation with other beings:

Divine infinity means that God is in every way immeasurable, unbounded, unlimited, unrestricted, without end, inexhaustible and has all attributes of perfection. [1] In all of His attributes, God is limitless and endless. When you consider His power, wisdom, justice, knowledge, etc., God is boundless. He is not restricted by time or space. He has all attributes of perfection and there is no perfection that He might lack. [2] The essence of God is limitless and unbounded. The Quran says:

“And He is Allah in the heavens and on earth” [3]

and

“Whithersoever ye turn, there is the presence of Allah.” [4]

God is therefore present everywhere and He is not restricted by time or place. He is above time and place. However, infiniteness in relation to God does not mean that He has occupied all places in the same way and manner as the physical entities have filled them. In fact, God is not matter and He does not fill the places in the material sense. It is only matter (that has length, breadth and width) that occupies a place and God is not matter to occupy a place. Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi says:

“As for why God is not matter, it is because every material object is limited, limited by time, place, qualities, features and effects. Every physical object has a fixed dimension whereas God’s existence is infinite and immeasurable in all terms. Obviously, such a being cannot be bounded with time and place. [5]

When it comes to the question as to why God is unlimited and infinite, we must say:

First, in view of the fact that a necessary being must be all-perfect (i.e. he should have all virtues of perfection) and that He cannot be limited by anything because if He were limited, it would mean that He is a combination of existence and non-existence. It has been proved elsewhere that combination is a sign of need and the concomitant of need is space whereas God (Who is the Necessary Being) is free from need and imperfection as was argued above. In fact, combination is against our supposition. [6] Secondly, it has been proved in its place that God, the Exalted, is pure existence and pure actuality. Finiteness means combination of existence and non-existence. Therefore, pure existence is not compatible with finiteness and limitation, and pure perfection cannot be limited by anything.

[1] Makarem Shirazi, Naser, The Belief of a Muslim, Hadaf Publication, 1st edition, p. 38
[2] Makarem Shirazi, Naser, “How to Know God”, Muhammadi Publications, 1343 p.42
[3] Al-An’am, 3
{هُوَ اللهُ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَفِي الأَرْضِ}
[4] Al-Baqarah, 115
{فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّواْ فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ اللهِ}
[5] Makarem Shirazi, Naser, The Belief of a Muslims, p. 43.
[6] Vide: A Collection of Student Questions, Khuda Shinasi and Farjamshinasi, Maaref Publication Office, 2003, p. 71, with little modification.