The attributes of God can be divided into two categories, those of Beauty (Jamal) and those of Majesty (jala[). Those that pertain to perfection (kama[) are referred to as attributes of Beauty or positive (thubuti) attributes; while those that refer indirectly to God [by negating what He is not] and which relate to imperfection or deficiency, are referred to as attributes of Majesty or as negative (salbi) attributes.
The intention behind the formulation of negative attributes is to negate from the Divine Reality any possible susceptibility to imperfection, deficiency or inadequacy. Insofar as the Divine Essence is utterly self-sufficient and constitutes in Itself absolute perfection, It is necessarily devoid of any attributes that derive from imperfection and dependency. From this point of view, Muslim theologians argue that God does not have a body, nor is He material; He is not a locus for any other entity, nor is He in¬carnate in any other entity-such features presuppose the imperfection and dependency proper to contingent, existent entities.
The intention behind the formulation of negative attributes is to negate from the Divine Reality any possible susceptibility to imperfection, deficiency or inadequacy. Insofar as the Divine Essence is utterly self-sufficient and constitutes in Itself absolute perfection, It is necessarily devoid of any attributes that derive from imperfection and dependency.
Among the other attributes deriving from imperfection is the capacity of being seen; for, in order to be seen, an object must fulfil the conditions of visual sense-perception, such as: being in a particular place, being illuminated by some source (that is, not being in darkness); and being separate, in essence. From the perceiving subject.
It is clear that such conditions are but the traces of an entirely corporeal and material frame of existential reference; they are utterly inapplicable to God, exalted as He is above all things. In addition, we can say that a 'god' that can be seen cannot escape from the following two conditions: either the totality of its being would be visible or else a part of its being; in the first case, the all-encompassing divine reality would be encompassed and delimited, and in the second, it would consist of parts-both of which conditions are far removed from the divine reality, elevated in sublimityas It is.
The foregoing discussion has considered corporeal, sensible vision, but as regards the vision of the heart, that is, inward spiritual perception which sees by the light of perfected faith, this is of an entirely different order; there is no doubt as regards its possibility, or rather, of its reality, for the saints of God.
Imam· 'Ali was asked by one of his companions, Dhi'lib al¬Yamani, 'Have you seen your Lord?' The Imam replied,
'I would not worship a lord whom I have not seen.' He was then asked, 'How did you see Him?' The Imam replied, 'The eyes cannot see Him according to outward vision; rather, it is the hearts that per¬ceive Him, through the verities of faith. '1
Imam 'Ali was asked by one of his companions, Dhi'lib al¬Yamani, 'Have you seen your Lord?' The Imam replied, 'I would not worship a lord whom I have not seen.' He was then asked, 'How did you see Him?' The Imam replied, 'The eyes cannot see Him according to outward vision; rather, it is the hearts that perceive Him, through the verities of faith.
Apart from the refutation of the possibility of corporeal perception of God by intellectual arguments, the possibility of this type of outward vision is also explicitly denied by the Qur'an. When the Prophet Moses, at the insistence of the Children of Israel, asked to see God, he is given a negative reply:
And when Moses arrived at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said, "My Lord, show me [Yourself] that I may look at You." [Allah] said, "You will not see Me,(Sura al-A'raf, 7: 143)
It might be asked: if seeing God is impossible, why does the Qur'an tell us that on the Day of Resurrection those of His slaves who are worthy will behold Him?
[Some] faces, that Day, will be radiant,Looking at their Lord.( Sura al-Qiyama, 75:22-23)
The reply to this question is that the meaning of 'looking' in this verse is the expectation of the mercy of God, the verses themselves providing evidence supporting this interpretation. First, the looking in question is connected to 'faces', that is, to happy faces that are looking toward Him. If the meaning here were the actual vision of God, then it would have been necessary to connect this vision with the eyes and not with faces. Secondly, the discourse of the Sura in question refers to two groups: one with bright and radiant faces, whose [anticipated] reward is made clear by the verse 'looking at their Lord'; and the other group with grim and anguished faces, whose [anticipated] punishment is alluded to by the verse 'knowing that some great disaster is about to befall them' (verse 25). The meaning of the second phrase is clear: they know that some painful punishment will soon befall them, and they are dreading its imminent advent.
As a parallel to the comparison between the two groups, we can make use of another aspect of the meaning of the first verse. In regard to those with radiant faces, the phrase 'looking at their Lord' can be understood as a metaphor for their expectation of mercy. There are many examples of this metaphor in Arabic and Persian. To take one example from the Persian language, it is said that such-and-such is looking at another person's hand; this means that he is expecting help from him. Moreover, in commenting upon the meaning of Qur'anic verses, one must not in principle confine oneself to one verse alone; rather, one must locate verses which shed light on the subject in question, and then derive the true meanings of a given verse from a whole series of verses of similar import. On the question of seeing God, if we gather together those verses and prophetic sayings pertaining to this question, it is clear that, from the Islamic perspective, there can be no possibility of seeing God [in terms of visual sense perception].
In commenting upon the meaning of Qur'anic verses, one must not in principle confine oneself to one verse alone; rather, one must locate verses which shed light on the subject in question, and then derive the true meanings of a given verse from a whole series of verses of similar import. On the question of seeing God, if we gather together those verses and prophetic sayings pertaining to this question, it is clear that, from the Islamic perspective, there can be no possibility of seeing God [in terms of visual sense perception].
It also becomes clear from the above arguments that Moses's request for a vision of God was at the insistence of the Children of Israel who said: 'Just as you hear the voice of God and transmit that to us, so look upon God and describe Him to us.'
And [recall] when you said, "O Moses, we will never believe you until we see Allah outright"; (Sura al-Baqara, 2:55)
It is also said:
And when Moses arrived at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said, "My Lord, show me [Yourself] that I may look at You." [Allah] said, "You will not see Me, (Sura al-A'raf, 7: 143)
1. Nahj al-balagha, Sermon no. 179.
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