In another sermon Ali'-upon whom be peace-said, "What points to Him (daliluh) is His signs (ayat);5 to perceive Him (wujuduh) is to affirm Him (ithbatuh);6 to know Him is to profess His unity; and professing His Unity is to distinguish Him (tamyiz) from His creation. The standard (hukm) for distinguishing is separation (baynunah) in attribute, not separation in terms of distance (uzlah). Surely He is a creating Lord (rabb khaliq), neither possessing a Lord nor created. Whatever can be conceived of
____________
1. This is a reference to the Quranic verse, "They are unbelievers who say, 'God is the Third of Three' " (V, 73). Concerning the providential Quranic "misunderstanding" of the Christian Trinity, see F. Schuon, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, pp. 40 ff.
2. The first kind of "unity" that is rejected is numerical unity, or the idea that when we say "He is one God", we mean something similar to what we mean when we say, 'This is one walnut", i.e., that there may also be two Gods, three Gods, etc. The second "unity" refers to similarity in kind or species, as when we say, "this is one cat", meaning that there are also other kinds of cats. In the words of Majlisi, "When it is said in this sense of a Byzantine that he is one of mankind, it is meant that his kind is one of the kinds of men or is a kind among other kinds" (p. 207). This is tashbih because we are comparing God to whatever we say He is one of. Since He is one of that kind, He has to be similar to others of that kind.
3. As Majlisi points out, the first of the acceptable meanings of divine Unity is that He is one in the sense that He has no second, associate or partner. Only He truly is. And the second is that He has no parts in any sense whatsoever (p.207).
4. The discrepancies between the present translation of this passage and that found in Shi'ite Islam, p. 127, are due to the fact that in Shi'ite Islam the passage has been translated from 'Allamah Tabataba'i's Persian translation, which includes his commentary.
5. God's signs are displayed through the whole of creation, as indicated in many passages of the Quran, as for example, in the verse "In the alternation of night and day, and what God has created in the heavens and the earth-surely there are signs for a godfearing people" (X,6).
6. The translation of this sentence follows the first interpretation offered by the commentator. According to the second, which seems less likely in the context, wujud would mean "existence" as it usually does in current usage, and the meaning would be: "His existence (being manifestly evident) necessitates affirming Him (i.e. attesting to Him)".
is different from Him."
"Then after that he said, "Whoso is known in himself (bi-nafsihi) is not a god: this is the guide to that which points to Him (al-dalil alayh) and this it is which leads to knowledge of Him."
