It has been narrated by Muhammad ibn\nAbdullah al-Khurasani, a servant of Imam Reza (PBUH), that one of the atheists\nentered into the presence of the Imam when there were some people with him. He\nasked the Imam (PBUH), “Tell me how God is, and where He is”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Imam (PBUH) answered, “Woe on\nto you! Surely what you think is wrong. He has created the “place”;\nHe existed when there was no “place”, and He created the\n“how”. He existed when there was no “how”. So He cannot be\nknown through qualities of “how” or “where”; He cannot be\nperceived by any of our senses, nor can He be compared to anything”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The atheist said, “So if He\ncannot be perceived by any of the senses, He does not exist at all”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imam Reza (PBUH) said, “Woe on to\nyou! When your senses fail to perceive Him, you deny His Lordship? But when our\nsenses fail to perceive Him, we know for certain that He is our Lord, and that\nHe is something different from other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man said, “What proof is\nthere for Him?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Imam (PBUH) replied, “When I\ncontemplate about my body and see that it is impossible for me to increase or\ndecrease its breadth and height, or to keep unpleasant things away from it, or\ndraw benefits to it, then I realize that this structure has a builder, and I\nacknowledge His existence. Also, when I see the rotation of the celestial\nsphere by His Power, the production of the clouds, the movements of the winds,\nthe procession of the sun, the moon and the stars, and other amazing and\nprofound signs, I realize that all these have a determiner and a creator”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man asked, \u201cThen how come eyes\ncannot see Him?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imam Reza (PBUH) replied, “So\nthat there is a difference between Him and His creatures- who are perceived by\nthe vision of the eyes. Moreover, He is exalted above that to be perceived by\nthe sight, encompassed by imagination, or delineated by the power of reasoning”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man said, “So define His\nlimits for me”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Imam (PBUH) answered, “He has\nno limits”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man asked, “Why?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imam Reza (PBUH) replied,\n“Because every limited thing is restricted to its limit. If limitation is\npossible, then extension is also possible; and if extension is possible, then\nconstriction is also possible. But He is unlimited; He cannot be extended, nor\ncan He be constrained; He cannot be divided, nor can He be perceived by the\nimagination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man said, \u201cYou say that He is\nSubtle (elegant and precise), All-Hearing, All-Seeing, All-Knowing and\nAll-Wise. Can He be the All-Hearing without ears, the All-Seeing without eyes,\nthe subtle without working with hands and the All-Wise without workmanship?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imam Reza (PBUH) replied, “A\nperson is known as subtle among us created beings based on skill in\nworkmanship. Have you not seen the man who undertakes a task and is subtle in\nhis handling of it, so that it is said, ‘How subtle is so and so!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then how should it not be said of the\nMajestic Creator that He is Subtle, when He creates a subtle and majestic\nCreation, places the souls in the living creatures, creates every kind\ndifferent in form from its own kind where none resembles any of the other and\neach possesses in the composition of its form a subtlety from the Subtle and\nAll-Aware Creator? Then we look upon the trees and their bearing of delicate\nthings, whether edible or not, and we say that ‘Surely our Creator is Subtle’,\n(but) not like the subtlety of His creatures in their workmanship”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“And we say\nthat He is All-Hearing, since not hidden from Him are the sounds of His\ncreatures between the heaven and the earth, from a mote to what is larger than\nthat, both in the land and at sea. And He does not get confused by their words.\nThis is why we say that He is All-Hearing, but not through ears”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe say that He is\nAll-Seeing, but not through eyes, for He sees the trace of a black ant on a\nblack stone on a dark night; He sees the tracks of an ant in a pitch-black\nnight; He sees what is harmful for it and what is beneficial to it, and the\nresult of its cohabitation, and its offspring and its descendents. This is how\nwe say He is All-Seeing, but not similar to the sight of His creatures”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The narrator says that the atheist man\ndid not give up this discussion until he became a Muslim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
(The above is a\nselection taken from “Tawhid” (Divine Unity), by Shaikh al-Saduq)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Roshd Website congratulates all\nMuslims, especially you dear friend, upon 11th of Dhi al-Qa’dah, the birthday\nanniversary of the container of Divine knowledge and preacher of Divine unity,\nImam Ali ibn Musa al-Reza (PBUH).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It has been narrated by Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Khurasani, a servant of Imam Reza (PBUH), that one of the atheists entered into the presence of the Imam when there were some people with him. He asked the Imam (PBUH), “Tell me how God is, and where He is”. The Imam (PBUH) answered, “Woe on to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28248],"tags":[22249,22248,22250,22163,18418,17955,21841,19269],"class_list":["post-4519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-occasional-letters","tag-2010-10-19","tag-a-solid-belief","tag-creator","tag-imam-reza","tag-occasion-letters","tag-people","tag-presence","tag-think"],"yoast_head":"\n