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O people
who believe in the Unity of God! You argue that the Creator of
the universe is absolutely One, and Eternally Besought-of-All.
He is Single, yet He has absolute and free disposition of
everything. He is able to exercise His absolute authority over
all things all at the same time, no one act of His preventing
Him from doing the others. How should we believe in such a
bewildering assertion. How can a single one do countless things
in countless places at the same instant without any difficulty?
The answer to
this question requires the analysis of an extremely profound and
subtle and extremely elevated and comprehensive mystery of God’s
being One and the Eternally Besought-of-All. The mind can discern
that mystery only through the telescope of a comparison. God’s
Essence and Attributes have no likes and equals, and are not
comparable, but His acts may be considered by means of comparison.
First
comparison
A single
person can acquire universality through various mirrors; while
being particular in essence, he can be universal in having
numerous aspects at the same time. Just as things like glass and
water become universal in those mirrors, so too, more refined
and transparent matters like air and ether and certain objects
from the world of symbols and immaterial forms become like
mirrors to bodies of light and spirit beings, functioning as
means of travel and transportation for them with the speed of
lightning and imagination. Seated on them, those bodies of light
and spirit beings travel with the speed of imagination in those
clear realms like the world of immaterial forms and can be
present in thousands of places at the same moment. By virtue of
being of light, and since their reflections are identical with
themselves, having exactly the same qualities, they act in every
place as if they were present in each personally. While the
reflections of solid, corporeal bodies are not identical with
themselves and since they do not have the same qualities as
themselves, they are lifeless.
For
example, despite being a concrete particular object, the sun
acquires universality by means of shining transparent objects.
It lends its reflections and images to all shining things on the
earth according to the capacity of each; even a single drop of
water and a piece of glass has an image of the sun. It is
present everywhere on the earth through either its light or heat
or image or the seven colors in its light. Were the sun to have
knowledge and consciousness, each object, especially the
shining, transparent ones, would be like a seat or chair for it
through which it could contact everything, and it could
communicate with all conscious beings through mirrors or even
through the eye of each one, without being prevented from
communicating with others. While it would be present and acting
everywhere on the earth through its knowledge, power and other
attributes, it would be nowhere in person.
The sun
is only like a solid, particular and lifeless mirror to the Name
the Light out of the thousand and one Names of the Majestic
Being. While the sun is being honored with such universal
functions, why, despite His Being Single in Essence, should the
Majestic Being not be able to do countless things at the same
time?
Second
comparison
Since the
universe is like a tree, each tree may be an example of the
realities of the universe. Taking that huge tree in front of my
room as a tiny specimen of the universe, we shall demonstrate
through it the manifestation of Divine Singleness in the
universe.
That tree
has at least one thousand fruits and each fruit has at least one
hundred seeds. All those one thousand fruits and a hundred
thousand seeds have all been created at the same time. However,
that tree has the same single node of nucleus of life in its
original seed, roots and trunk, which contains all the laws of
its formation issuing from the Divine Will and Command, and it
has permeated through all parts of the tree, being present in
each fruit and seed. Unlike light, heat and air, that nucleus of
life, which itself comprises a single manifestation of Divine
Will and a law of Divine Command, does not dissipate. Without
disintegration or diffusion, it is present in every part. Its
manifold actions are not contrary to its singleness. It may even
be said that that manifestation of Divine Will, that law of
Divine Command, that nucleus of life, may be present both in
every part and nowhere at the same time. It is as if that law of
Divine Command had eyes and ears to the number of the fruits and
seeds of that magnificent tree. Or it is as if in each part of
the tree there was a control center for the ‘senses and
feelings’ of that law of Divine Command. The veins and parts
of the tree such as the branches are like telephone wires in
facilitating the operation or functioning of that law.
Since, then,
a single particular manifestation of God’s Attribute of Will
observably functions to be the means of millions of acts in millions
of places at the same time, we should certainly have as strong a
conviction about it as if we were seeing it with the naked eye, that
the Majestic Being is able to dispose the tree of creation with all
its parts and particles through the manifestation of His Power and
Will.
The
Sacred Being is absolutely free of matter and exempt from any
restrictions and the darkness of densities
Despite being
single and in a fixed place, helpless luminaries like the sun which
are restricted by matter and move according to certain laws of God,
and the laws of God’s Command and manifestations of His Will such
as comprise the nucleus of that tree’s life, can observably be in
many places doing numerous actions at the same time, and although
each is a particular thing restricted by matter, it becomes like a
universal thing and can accomplish many different things at the same
moment. You see this with your eyes, therefore you cannot deny it.
However, the Sacred Being is absolutely free of matter and exempt
from any restrictions and the darkness of densities. All
those-lights, luminaries and all creatures of pure light-are a
single shadow of the lights of His Sacred Names, and all existence
and life, and the worlds of spirits, and immaterial forms and
symbols, and the intermediary world of the grave, are each a
semi-transparent mirror of His Beauty and Grace. Also, His
Attributes are all-encompassing and His acts, universal. I wonder,
then, what thing can be hidden from Him, Who is Single manifesting
His Attributes and acting through His universal Will, absolute Power
and all-encompassing Knowledge. What thing can be difficult for Him
to do? What place can be concealed from Him? What individual can
remain distant from Him? What person can draw near Him without
acquiring universality? What thing can prevent Him from doing
another? As Ibn ‘Abbas pointed out, why should He not have
immaterial ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’ each looking at and hearing a
creature? Why should chains of things not be like veins or wires in
conducting His laws and commands speedily? Why should things you
regard as obstacles and impediments, not be the means of His free
disposition of the creation? Why should causes and means not be only
apparent veils (to His direct disposition of the universe and free
operations)? Why should He not be present everywhere while He is not
contained by any place? Why should He need to take up an abode in a
place? Why should distances or small size of things or the veils of
the levels of existence constitute obstacles to His nearness to
things and seeing them and disposing them as He wishes? Why should
change, alteration, containment by space, and division, which are
all the intrinsic qualities of physical, restricted, contingent,
solid and multiplying beings, be accidental or necessary to the
Sacred Being, the Light of Lights, the Single One of Unity, the
Necessarily Existent One, Who is absolutely free of matter and any
restrictions, and exempt from any defect and fault? Does impotence
ever befit Him, and defect ever happen to His Honor and Dignity?
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