Journal of Razavi Culture

Abstract Divine knowledge and the issues related to it have received profound attention in the intellectual and spiritual heritage of the Pure Progeny (ʿItrat Ṭāhirah, peace be upon them). One of the questions concerning the attribute of divine knowledge is the self-awareness of the Almighty God. Among the narrations that discuss the self-awareness of God, the negative response of Imam Reza (peace be upon him) to ʿImrān al Ṣābī regarding the question of “whether God, the Exalted, is known in Himself and to Himself” is a striking statement, whose meaning commentators have explicitly found difficult to interpret. In their efforts to elucidate this hadith, three main interpretive approaches have emerged: 1. Some scholars have regarded ʿImrān’s question as referring to a kind of awareness whose affirmation for God would entail imperfection. 2. Others have understood it as referring to awareness in its absolute sense, and have interpreted the Imam’s denial as a negation of the limitation that would arise from affirming such an attribute for God, given His absolute nature. 3. A third group has held that ʿImrān’s question is not, in fact, related to divine self-awareness at all. This article examines the existing interpretations of the narration primarily through the lens of the latter two approaches.

Abstract On the issue of the possibility of seeing God in some authentic hadith books of the Imamiyah, There is a hadith attributed to Imam Reza (p.b.u.h) according to which the association of seeing God with faith in him in this world and the hereafter is considered forbidden. Shiite thinkers have listed this hadith as one of the difficult and ambiguous hadiths and have tried to explain its meaning; But the problems that are noticed in their explanations indicate their inaccuracy. According to the intellectual foundations of the theologians of the time of Imam Reza (p.b.u.h), an innovative solution can be proposed based on the opposition of “obligation to faith” and “occurrence of essential knowledge”. And the conflict between “seeing God” and “believing in Him” can be seen as related to the mentioned opposition. According to the intellectual foundations of the theologians of the time of Imam Reza (p.b.u.h), an innovative solution can be proposed based on the opposition of “obligation to faith” and “occurrence of essential knowledge”. And the conflict between “seeing God” and “believing in Him” can be seen as related to the mentioned opposition. But this solution is not without problems; therefore, as stated by some thinkers, the attribution of this hadith to the Imam should be negated, at least in the way it appears in the hadith sources; especially, its content is in conflict with some verses of the Qur’an and some hadiths.

Abstract Among the reliable collections of Imamiyyah hadith, such as Uṣūl Kāfī, while discussing the applicability of seeing Allah the Almighty, a narrative is narrated from Imam Riḍā (as), and the theme of the narrative is that seeing Allah the Most Exalted cannot be gathered with faith in Him, neither in this world nor in the Hereafter; Hence, it is not possible to see Allah the Almighty. Shia thinkers have listed this narrative as one of the difficult and ambiguous narrations, and in explaining its meaning, they have proposed several solutions; but it seems that none of the proposed solutions are acceptable; because some suggested meanings do not match the appearance of the narrative or that some of them cannot match the narrative in terms of meaning. Therefore, one should either look for another solution in explaining the meaning of this narrative or, due to the fact that Muhammad ibn Ubaid who is its narrator, is unknown, and its issuance, at least in the form that is mentioned in the hadith collections narration, should be rejected.