Living The Quran
From Issue: 1060 [Read full issue]
Howness of God
Al-Baqara (The Cow) Sura 2: Verse 78 (partial)
"And among them are the unlettered."
In this verse, the attribute of unletteredness is a censure of the estranged and a mark of their shortcoming. In the verse where God says, "Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered prophet" [7:157], it is a praise of Mustafa and a mark of his perfection. This alludes to the fact that having the same name does not mean being of the same kind. The congruence of names does not require the congruence of meanings. The position of the Folk of the Sunnah in affirming the attributes of the Real was established according to this rule: the agreement of one name with another does not bring about the agreement of meanings. God has attributes and descriptions fitting for Godhood, and creatures are far from that. Created things have created attributes, and God is pure of that. Do you not see that "exalted" is a name of God, and He called Joseph exalted [12:78]? God's exaltedness is worthy of Him and the created thing's exaltedness is worthy of it.
By the agreement of the Muslims and the attestation of most of the unbelievers, God is existent and the creatures are existent. But, the creatures exist by God's existence-giving, and God exists by His own abidance and His own being and subsistence. The Muslims agree that God is alive, and there are many living things among the created. The created thing is alive through breath and through appropriate and timely nourishment, but God is alive through His life and subsistence and through His firstness and lastness—without when, how many, or how. All the opponents of the Folk of the Sunnah say that God is maker and the created thing maker. But the created thing is maker through artifice, instrument, striving, and measure, and God is maker through power and wisdom—whatever He wants, as He wants, and whenever He wants.
There are many similar things in the Quran. In short, God knows how He is, and He is just as He said He is, but the servant is incapable of knowing His howness. What God said about Himself should be accepted from the eyeteeth and assented to from the depth of the spirit. When someone fancies that having the same meaning is to be of the same kind, that is to go by the road of the roadless, and it is nothing but rebellion. Hoping to grasp God by imagination and seeking is absurd, and everything gained in this way will be faulty. Safety in the religion lies in accepting the message, approving of him who conveyed it, bowing the head, and putting aside seeking.
Compiled From:
"Kashf al-Asrar wa Uddat al-Abrar" - Rashid al-Din Maybudi, pp. 34, 35