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Quran,Translation and Commentary in Brief (Vol. 06)
Verses 1-5Verses 1-4


HE IS THE ONE AND SINGLE!
VERSES NO. 1-4
The first verse is a reply to the repeated questions made by the various tribes or individuals about the qualities of God. Application of the pronoun He is in fact a code and reference to the reality that His Sacred Essence is in utmost secrecy and unavailable to the men's limited thoughts, although His effects have spread throughout the world so that He is the most clear and manifest, as we read in the Distinguished, verse 53: 
We shall show them Our signs in the horizons and in themselves, till it is clear to them that it is the truth. 
Then, the unknown reality is revealed saying that He is the single God. 
In a narration from Amiramomenin Ali (AS) we read: I dreamed Khezr at the night before Badr battle. I asked him to teach me something to overcome the enemies seeking help from it. He said:
یاهو، یا من لا هو الا هو
Say: O He, O One Who there is no one save Him. 
I related the story to Prophet (SA) next morning. He replied: O Ali (AS), the Greatest Name (of God) has been taught to you. Then, I repeated this phrase during Badr battle. 
When Ammar Yasser heard Hazrat Ali (AS) reciting this phrase on the Saffein Day during fighting, he asked him: What are these phrases for?
He replied: This is the Greatest Name of God and the basis of monotheism.
Allah is a particular name for God, including all of His positive and negative attributes. This name is not applied for anything save God, while the other names usually referring to one of his positive or negative attributes, like Knower, Creator and Nourisher are applied for others too. 
This sacred name has been repeated in Quran about one thousand times and none of His sacred names are repeated in Quran so many times. This name illuminates heart, empowers and comforts man and drowns him in a world of light and tranquility. 
The term One implies that He is single, not in view of number, type or quality, but in view of unity of essence. In other words, His singleness means nonexistence of anything similar, peer and parallel to Him. 
The reason is clear because He is an Infinite Essence from every aspect. Evidently, it is impossible to suppose two Infinite Essences from every aspect, because two essences are limited, and one may lack some perfections of the other and vice versa! Pay attention! 
In commentary of Absolute, we read in a narration that Mohammad Ebne Hanafieh asked Amiralmomenin Ali (AS) about this term. He answered: Absolute implies that He is neither a noun, nor a body; neither has any similar, nor any peer; neither a form, nor a simulacrum; neither a limit nor a boundary, neither a location nor a place; neither here nor there; neither full nor empty; neither standing nor sitting; neither still nor moving; neither dark nor radiant; neither spiritual nor bodily; and at the meantime, no location is void of Him; and no place could include Him;He has no color, and has not occurred in any human's heart; He has no scent. All of these attributes are negated from His Sacred Essence. 
The above narration shows that the term Absolute has a very comprehensive and wide scope of meaning, negating any attribute of creatures from His Sacred Essence. 
The next verse refutes the beliefs of Christian, Jews and Arab idolaters assuming child or father for God.
Christians believed in Trinity (Three Gods), Father God, Son God and the Sacred Spirit! 
The Jews say, Ezra is the Son of God; the Christians say,The Christ is the Son of God; that is the utterance of their mouths, conforming to the unbelievers before them. God assails them! How they are perverted! (Repentance:30) 
They (idolaters) impute to Him sons and daughters without any knowledge!(Cattle:100) 
The last verse perfects the attributes of God, saying: And there is none like (similar to) Him. 
According to this verse, all conditions of the created, and the attributes of creatures, and any defect and restraint are negated from His Pure Essence. This is the same Unity of Divine Essence and Unity of Attributes against unity of quantity and type. 
Therefore, He has no similar in essence, no peer in attributes, and no peer in actions. He is unique from every aspect.

Hints
1- Proofs for unity: In addition to the Quranic verses and the narrations, Unity, that is, unity of sacred essence of God and inexistence of any similar and peer for Him, could be proved through numerous intellectual proofs, to some of which we will briefly refer hereunder:
a- Mere existence argument: In summary, God is the absolute existence, and there is no limit, term and condition for Him. Such existence would certainly be infinite, because otherwise, it will be tainted with inexistence, and the Sacred Essence from which essence originates, would never deserves inexistence. There is nothing outward to impose inexistence on Him. Therefore, He is not limited to anything.
On the other hand, it is not possible to suppose two infinite existences in the world, because if there were two beings, surely, one of them would lack the perfections of the other. In this way, both will be finite and this is a clear proof for unity of essence of the Necessary Being.
b- Scientific argument: When we look at this immsense world, first we find it as scattered creatures including earth, sky, sun, moon, stars and all types of plants and animals. However, when we reflect on them more precisely, we find the components and particles of this world so correlated to each other that they totally form a coherent and organized unit.
The unity of system of existence, the rules governing it and the coherence and integrity among its components imply that its creator has been single!
c- Mutual hindrance argument (scientific philosophical argument)- The other argument mentioned for proving Unity of Essence of God in Quran (Prophets:22) is the mutual hindrance argument:
Why, were there gods in earth and heaven other than God, they would surely go to ruin; so glory be to God; the Lord of the Throne, above that they describe! 
d- Public invitation by prophets to the single God- This is another argument for proving Unity, because if there were two necessary beings in the world, both should be the origin of bounty as it is not possible for an infinite being to spare granting bounty, and lack of bounty is a fault for a perfect being and His wisdom necessitates Him to grant all His bounty.
In his will, Hazrat Ali (AS) addresses Imam Mojtaba (AS): O, my son! Know that if your lord had a peer, his envoys would have come to you, and you would see the effects of his kingdom, and would become familiar with his actions and attributes, but as He has attributed, God is single. 

2-The fruitful branches of unity: Usually, four branches are mentioned for Unity:
a- Unity of essence (what was mentioned above) 
b- Unity of attributes, that is, His attributes are neither in excess of His essence, nor are they separate from each other. Rather, His being is all knowledge, all power, all eternity and all everlasting.
Otherwise, it necessitates composition, and if He is a compound, then He needs the components, and a dependant being would never be a Necessary Being. 
c- Unity of actions, that is, any being, any motion, any action in the world returns and depends on His Pure Essence. Even our actions originate from Him in one sense, as He has given us power, option and freedom of feel. Therefore, although we are the doer of our actions and are responsible for them, but God is the doer in another point of view, as whatever we have return to Him.
d- Unity in worship, that is, we shall only worship Him, and none save Him deserve servitude, because servitude allocates to one who is that absolute perfection, one who is needless of anything, and bestower of all blessings; and creator of all creatures. This attributes exist only in His Pure Essence and none more!

* Branches of unity of action - Unity of action too has numerous branches to six of which we will refer hereunder. 
1- Unity of creator - As Quran says:
God is the Creator of everything. (Quran, Thunder:16)
2- Unity of deity - that is, the administrator and creator of the world of existence is God, as Quran says: 
Say: Shall I seek after a Lord other than God, who is the Lord of all things? (Quran, Cattle:164) 
3- Unity of legislation and divine law: According to Quran: 
Whoso judges not according to what God has sent down- they are the unbelievers. (Quran:The Table:44) 
When we proved that He is the administrator, surely none will be competent for legislation save Him, because none save Him has any share in administration of world to legislate rules in conformity with the system of creation. 
4- Unity of ownership: Either real ownership, that is, genetic possession of something or legal ownership, that is, legal possession of something, all belong to Him. 

According to Quran:
To God belongs the Kingdom of the heavens and of the earth. (Quran, House of Imran:189)
And it says:
And expend of that unto which He has made you successors. (Quran,Iron:7) 
The reason is unity of creation. When He is the creator of everything, naturally His sacred essence is the possessor of everything. Therefore, any ownership originates from Him.
5- Unity of governance: Certainly, the human society needs governance, because a social life without governance is not possible. 
Distribution of responsibilities, preparation of programs, implementation of managements and prevention from oppressions and aggressions are only possible through governance. 
In one hand, according to the principle of freedom of men, none has right to govern over the other, unless the main owner and real possessor authorizes. This is the reason why we reject any governance not ending to the divine governance, and this is the reason why we call legitimate the governance of Prophet (SA), the Immaculate Imams (AS) and then the fully competent Faqih.
Of course, people may authorize one to govern over them, but since agreement of all people in the society is generally impossible, such governance is not possible in practice.
6- Unity of obedience: The only authority obedience to whom is necessary in the world is the sacred essence of God. The legitimacy for obedience to any other authority originates from here, that is, obedience to him is obedience to God. 
When sovereignty allocates to Him, obedience too allocates to Him. So, we assume obedience to Prophet (SA) and the Immaculate Imams (AS) and their successors a beam from obedience to God. Quran says:
O believers, obey God and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. (Women:59)
Whosoever obeys the Messenger, thereby obeys God. (Women:80)

THE END OF THE SINCERITY SUREH


Verses 1-5Verses 1-4
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Lotus
Mitra
Nazanin
Titr
Tahoma