Reconfiguring the Attributes of the Imam's Knowledge: An Analysis  Based on the Impact of Divine Endowment on the Quantity and  Quality of the Imam’s Knowledge  (A Case Study of an Imam Riḍā's (as) Narration in Marv)

Esmaeili, Masoumeh

doi:10.22034/farzv.2025.458322.1998

Reconfiguring the Attributes of the Imam's Knowledge: An Analysis Based on the Impact of Divine Endowment on the Quantity and Quality of the Imam’s Knowledge (A Case Study of an Imam Riḍā's (as) Narration in Marv)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Masoumeh Esmaeili

Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Theology, Hoda Faculty and manager of the Imamate Research Group. Islamic Studies Research Institute, Qom, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22034/farzv.2025.458322.1998

Abstract

The extended narration of Imam al-Riḍā (A) in Marv stands as one of the most profound and comprehensive hadiths concerning the status of Imamate. The central question of this article is a critical reassessment of the prevailing scholarly view, which treats the attributes of the Imam’s knowledge—such as being divinely gifted, present (ḥuḍūrī), infallible, capable of increase, detailed, actual, and certain—as parallel and independent features. This study argues that these are not separate or coexisting attributes; rather, the Imam’s knowledge is fundamentally and essentially a gifted knowledge (ʿilm mawhūbī), a simple and unifying quality from which all other traits emanate. The divine gift (hibah ilāhīyah) serves as the foundational epistemic principle that gives rise to both the quantity and quality of the Imam’s knowledge.
Specifically, this divine bestowal renders the Imam’s knowledge detailed and augmentable in terms of quantity, and infallible, certain, immediate, and actualized in terms of quality. Consequently, a revised classification is proposed: instead of referring to a set of plural attributes, the term “gifted knowledge” should be adopted as a singular, essential description, with its characteristics reorganized into quantitative and qualitative categories. This article, employing an analytical method based on Imam al-Riḍā’s narration and related interpretive hadiths, first establishes divine giftedness as the essential and simple quality of the Imam’s knowledge. It then seeks to answer the core question: How does divine gifting impact the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of the Imam’s knowledge?

Keywords

Gifted Knowledge

Imam al-Riḍā (A)

Imam’s Knowledge

Quantity and Quality of Knowledge

Subjects

Promotion and deepening of Razavi culture and education

Holy Quran.

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