عبد الله بن مسكان

“Once I asked Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) about the minimum degree of al-Shirk (paganism). The Imam said, ‘It is one’s inventing an opinion and thereafter love and hate (people) on that basis.’”

I asked Abu `Abd Allah al-Sadiq (AS) about Allah, Blessed and Exalted be He: “Did He have knowledge of location before He created location? Or did He come to know if it when He was creating it or after He had created it?” So he (AS) replied: “Exalted is Allah! Verily, he knew about space before He created space in the same fashion that He knew about if after He brought it into being. His Knowledge of space is the same as His Knowledge of all things.” The Compiler of this book, may Allah be pleased with him, says: Another proof that Allah, Blessed and Exalted be He, is Omniscient, is that action, planning, and work, can only be orchestrated by intelligence and not from ignorance, since it most surely requires wisdom. Not only can action, planning, and work not originate from ignorance, they cannot continue to operate without intelligence. Do you not see that one who does not know the art of goldsmithing cannot make an earring, even while placing every tiny essential piece in its position? Neither it is possible for someone who does not know how to write to write a book in which every word is in accordance with the previous. The All-Knowing is More Magnificent in work, and more amazing in establishment, than what we have described. Hence, it is certainly impossible for creation to have originated from a non-knower. The confirmation of this is (to be found in the following tradition):

“Surely the Almighty Allah has created locks for polytheism and the key to those locks is wine. There is more evil in lying than in alcohol.”

I heard Aba Abdillah عليه السلام saying: Allah is empty of His creations and His creations are empty of Him. Whatever can referred to by the name ‘thing’ apart from Allah then it is a creation, and Allah is the creator of all things. Blessed is the one whom there is nothing like Him and He is the All-Hearing the All-Seeing.

Indeed, the people of the Jahiliya, when a female camel gave birth to two children in one belly [1], they would say: «She connected» and they would not consider it allowable to slaughter it, nor eat it. If she gave birth to ten, they would make it a sa’iba, and they would not permit its back [2] nor to eat it. The haam [3] is the male camel which they did not consider allowable. Then Allah, Exalted and Glorious is He, sent down that He had not forbidden anything of that.

“Once I asked Abu ‘Abdillah (a.s.) about the words of Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most Holy, ‘. . . they (unconditionally) obeyed the rabbis and the monks. ... as they should have obeyed Allah. . . .’ (9:31) The Imam said, ‘By Allah, they (rabbis and monks) did not call the people to worship them. Had they done so people would not have listened to them. They, however, made certain things lawful and unlawful as they liked and people obeyed and worshipped them without realizing the evil in such worship.’”

Even in His Essence, and before anything existed, Allah, our Lord, the High and the Mighty, possessed all knowledge. Even in His Essence, and before a sound could be heard, He was All-Hearing. Even in His Essence, when there was nothing to be seen, He was All-Seeing. Even in His Essence, when there was no physical existence, He was Omnipotent. Although they existed prior to creation, it was only creation that these attributes manifested themselves: His Hearing upon the heard, His Seeing upon the seen, and His Omnipotence over the physical world. He says: I asked, “Then, Allah was not a Speaker?” He (AS) replied, “Verily, speech is an originated [muhdathah] attribute and not eternal [azaliyyah]. Allah, the Mighty and High, existed when no speakers existed.”