Moses and the issue of seeing God

وَلَمَّا جَاءَ مُوسَى لِمِيقَاتِنَا وَكَلَّمَهُ رَبُّهُ قَالَ رَبِّ أَرِنِي أَنظُرْ إِلَيْكَ قَالَ لَنْ تَرَانِي وَلَكِنْ انظُرْ إِلَى الْجَبَلِ فَإِنْ اسْتَقَرَّ مَكَانَهُ فَسَوْفَ تَرَانِي فَلَمَّا تَجَلَّى رَبُّهُ لِلْجَبَلِ جَعَلَهُ دَكًّا وَخَرَّ مُوسَى صَعِقًا فَلَمَّا أَفَاقَ قَالَ سُبْحَانَكَ تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ وَأَنَا أَوَّلُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ.

“And when Musa came at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said: My Lord! Show me (Thyself), so that I may look upon Thee. He replied: you can not bear to see Me, but look at the mountain, if it remains firm in its place, then will you see Me; but when his Lord manifested His Glory to the mountain He made it crumble and Musa fell down in swoon; then when he recovered, he said: Glory be to Thee, I turn to Thee, and I am the first of the believers.”

In summary, the act which we call seeing is a natural phenomenon and needs a material substance to be seen. But what we learn from the Holy Quran is that no creature has any similarity to Allah, the Almighty; no Time or Place may contain Him. And no from of Him may be observed.

Thus the objective of Musa Ibn Imran was not really to see Allah, because such a request was not becoming of him, who was one of the great five prophets. This request that Allah who is free from time and place should show Himself to man is more of a joke than reality.

Wherever Allah talks about Him being seen and observed, there are mentioned certain conditions. For instance, in the verse:

أَوَلَمْ يَكْفِ بِرَبِّكَ أَنَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ شَهِيدٌ؟ أَلَا إِنَّهُمْ فِي مِرْيَةٍ مِنْ لِقَاءِ رَبِّهِمْ أَلَا إِنَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ مُحِيطٌ.

“Is it not sufficient as regards your Lord that He is a witness over all things? Now surely they are in doubt as to the meeting of their Lord; now surely He encompasses all things, ( 41:53-54) we will observe such conditions.

Prior to the confirmation of the meeting with God, He has reasoned that Allah is everywhere and His presence does not rely on specific Time or Place or Direction. He is present everywhere and He encompasses all things.

This is the true meaning of meeting with God, and not seeing him through ordinary eyes and through limited Time and Place.

What Allah has confirmed in the Holy Quran concerning meeting with Him is not to be taken as ordinary observing with one’s eyes; rather what is meant is through one’s conscience and heart without our eyes being involved. Man could easily conceive God through his heart. If he is not able to conceive Him the reason might be that he is too much involved in the material things. But this knowing of God will never vanish in man. Nowhere in Quran is there any mention of the disappearance of this knowledge. Everywhere in the Quran this ignorance is interpreted as “negligence”.

Of course, as it is understood from the Holy Quran, this knowledge which is interpreted as meeting with Allah, is only for true believers. As the Holy Quran says:

وُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ نَاضِرَةٌ إِلَى رَبِّهَا نَاظِرَةٌ.

“Some faces on that day shall be bright, looking to their Lord. 75:22-23”

The Resurrection Day is the place and time of such meeting and it will not take place in this world in which man has to satisfy his material needs.

This world is the place where we may set the stage to meet with Allah and to get to know the knowledge to comprehend His verses.

Thus, Moses (s) in his sentence:

رَبِّ أَرِنِي أَنظُرْ إِلَيْكَ.

“My Lord! Show me Thyself so that I may look upon Thee”

has, in reality, asked Allah to provide him with the sufficient knowledge to be able to see Him mentally. Allah had previously given Moses hypothetical knowledge through which he could delve into Allah’s signs.

Furthermore, he was appointed to the position of prophethood by Allah. Moses wished to have the knowledge to know Him better.

Naturally, meeting with God with the meaning intended and elaborated in the above lines, is confirmed in several places of the Holy Quran. And its negation as used in لَنْ تَرانِي “You can not bear to see Me” refers to this world only. It simply means so far as man is primarily concerned with his material needs, he will never attain such knowledge of his God. This meeting would only be possible when man dies and disconnects himself from this world. God, in the above verse, tells Moses that he is unable to meet with Him in this world through material eyes. He should first die, then he would get that knowledge of seeing Allah.

Thus, the sentence: وَلَكِنْ انظُرْ إِلَى الْجَبَلِ “But look at the mountain,” is not to be taken as the negation of meeting with Allah; rather, Allah wants to show Moses that he has not the power to observe God in the usual sense of the word. God’s manifestation to Moses would disintegrate Moses on the spot.[1]

To describe anything, we have to conceive the truth and a concept of that thing. In the case of God, we may refer to His signs and creatures.

The issue of Allah’s names and attributes is a puzzle for earth - dwellers. If we wish to describe Allah we should say: I will describe you as you described yourself. And this description is the result of begging from Him. We have to describe Him with the terminology that He has employed to describe Himself. When we arrive at the other world, then we will be honored to meet with Him.

When we study the descriptions made by the describers and the Islamic knowledge which are recorded in precious books, and then compare this knowledge with the Holy Quran, we will get the point which Imam Sajjad (s) has referred to in the sentence:

عَجَزَت عَنْ نَعْتِهِ اَوْهامُ الواصِفينَ.

The imagination of scholars, philosophers, lovers, and those whose hearts are the base for your love, is unable to describe you. How could a poor, weak, limited entity like us describe the infinite. The best description of God is what he has described Himself.

If anybody wishes to recognize Him, he should refer to the Holy Quran and the invocations from the Infallible Ones (s) and spend years of research and get himself involved in hard endeavors and avoid doing unlawful acts and observe the principles of the faith.

However, this inability of the describers should not hinder us from thinking deeply on the issue of monotheism. They have not been successful to describe God properly, but this is not a valid excuse for us not to put forward our best trial. Such a program is rejected in the Holy Quran. In the introduction to the fifth volume of Realism, Motahhari, the distinguished philosopher, writes, “They say: According to the Holy Quran the only way to recognize God is to study the nature with our senses. No doubt, the Holy Quran invites us to do so, but does Quran consider the study of nature enough by itself to solve all other problems which it has raised?”

The following problems are raised in the Holy Quran:

● لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ.

“There is nothing like Him. 42:11”

● وَلِلَّهِ الْمَثَلُ الْأَعْلَى.

“And Allah is the loftiest attribute. 16: 60”

● وَلِلَّهِ الْأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَى.

“And Allah’s are the best names. 7:180”

● الْمَلِكُ الْقُدُّوسُ السَّلَامُ الْمُؤْمِنُ الْمُهَيْمِنُ الْعَزِيزُ الْجَبَّارُ.

“The king, the Holy, the Quiver of peace the Granter of security the Guardian over all, the Almighty the supreme, the possessor of every greatness. 59:23”

فَأَيْنَمَا تُوَلُّوا فَثَمَّ وَجْهُ اللَّهِ.

“[Allah’s is the East and the west], therefore, wither you turn, thither is Allah’s purpose. 2: 115”

وَهُوَ مَعَكُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنْتُمْ.

“And He is with you wherever you are. 57:4”

These are problems concerning the other side of our borders. How is it possible to know these issues through the study of nature. The tudy of nature will definitely familiarize us with the Might, Power and the Knowledge of the Creator, and permits us to know that He is aware of everything going around us. But the Holy Quran expects more from us: we should know, as well, that He is unexceptionally aware of every thing. How would it be possible for a finite being to know about the infinite?

The truth is that the study of nature leads us up to the border of super–natural. The study of nature will reveal to us that the nature is controlled or guided by the conscious Power and Might. But has this Power come from anywhere? Is it Eternal? Is it single or plural? Does it have all the attributes of perfection? Is it finite or infinite? Is it Holy and without fault? Do we meet with Him anywhere we go? Is He First and the Last? And the like…

The answers to these questions which are at issue in the Holy Quran could not be dealt with in the study of the nature. Thus, we come to the conclusion that man could never comprehend these problems and he has to believe blindly. Or if there is a way, it is not attainable through the study of nature, anyhow.

But we should be aware of the fact that all the above issues are indoctrinated to us by the Holy Quran as a series of lessons. And the study of nature is not enough by itself. Rather, there should be another way to know the truth which is confirmed by the Holy Quran.

That way, which is approved by the Holy Quran is through wisdom, reasoning and philosophy, which is more complete than the way based on heart or science. In other words, it is more comprehensive than the natural way”.

The content of Imam Sajjad’s statement is this: However hard the describers try to know God through the ways based on heart, science and wisdom, and gain something in this regard, and taste the monotheism which is discussed in the Holy Quran, but since their wisdom and heart are limited, they may not describe the Sacred Being who is Eternal, Apparent, Hidden, Knowing, Aware and Seeing.

Most scholars of religion, however, have used the above three techniques and have been inspired by the Holy Quran, the Prophet and the Infallible Ones (s) and have in this way understood the content of the above verses and have given us good books on monotheism. However, all these scholars have, in their lofty books, confessed to their inability to recognize God, fully.

Tabarsi, in his Ehtejaj, reports from Imam Ali (s):

دَليلُهُ آياتُهُ، و وُجُودُهُ إثباتُهُ، وَ مَعْرِفَتُهُ تَوْحيدُهُ، وَ تَوْحِيدُهُ تَمْييزُهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ، وَ حُكْمُ التَّمْييزِ بَيْنُونَهُ صِِفَة لا بَيْنُونَهُ عُزْلَةٍ، إنَّهُ رَبٌّ خَالِقٌ، غَيْرُ مَرْبُوبٍ مَخْلُوقٍ، كُلُّ ما تُصُوِّرَ فَهُوَ بِخِلافِهِ.

His indicator is his verses; His Existence is His existence. His recognition is to consider Him Unique. When we say He is Unique, we say He is separate from His creatures; this separation rests on the separation of Attributes and not in Entity so that His Being would be finite. This is because He is the Creator, not the created. Whatever you conceive of God, it is not God.

When we consider the last sentence we will realize how weak the describers are in describing Allah. Sentences like the above are frequently found in the statements of the prophets and the Infallible Ones (s), especially in those of Imam Ali (s), statements which no philosopher has ever uttered. The Sacred Being of Allah is loftier than could be described in words.

The great philosopher, Allameh Tabatabaee, adds at the end of this sermon: The signs which indicate the Existence of the Creator are nothing compared with the Creator.

Imam Ali (s), seven day after the demise of the prophet (s), uttered a sermon on the first part of which he talked on monotheism:

الحَمْدُ للهِ الَّذي أعْجَزَ الأوهَامَ أنْ تَنْالَ إلا وُجُودَهُ، وَ حَجَبَ العُقُولَ عَنْ أنْ تَتَخَيَّلَ ذاتَهُ في امْتِناعِها مِنَ الشَّبَهِ وَ الشَّكْلِ، بَلْ هُوَ الَّذي لَمْ يَتَفاوَتْ في ذاتِهِ، وَ لَمْ يَتَبَعَّضْ بِتَجْزِئَةِ الْعَدَدِ في كَمالِهِ، فارَقَ الأشْياءَ لا عَلَى اخْتِلافِ الأماكِنِ، وَ تَمَكَّنَ مِنْها لا عَلَى الْمُمَازَجَةِ، وَ عَلِمَها لا بِأداةٍ لا يَكُونُ العِلْمُ إلا بِها، وَ لَيسَ بَيْنَهُ وَ بَينَ مَعْلُومِهِ عِلْمٌ غَيْرُهُ. إن قِيلَ: (كانَ) فَعَلى أزَلِيِّةِ الوُجُودِ، وَ إنْ قِيلَ: (لَمْ يَزَلْ) فَعَلى تَأويلِ نَفْي العَدَمِ، فَسُبحانَهُ وَ تَعالى عَنْ قَولِ مَنْ عَبَدَ سِواهُ، وَ اتَّخَذَ إلهاً غَيْرَهُ عُلُوّاً كَبيراً.

The whole topic is on Divine philosophy, on reasoning. It is on the path of monotheism with the help of thought and wisdom. A clean heart and a bright thought may grasp the content angle of Allah’s Magnanimity. These sentences are a wavy ocean of knowledge, a treasure of knowledge and insight, and a lamp towards God. In the first and second sentences, Imam Ali (s) says: man’s thought can not reach the depth of the matter.

“Praise be upon the Sacred Being of Allah who has deprived our imagination and wisdom of realizing the truth of Him. This is because He does not fit any shape or associate. He is separate from things not because of the material distance, and has dominated over things. He is the science and knowledge about Himself. If we say God was, the antecedent is eternal, and if we say He will never vanquish, we have negated the non – existence of Him. Therefore, He is loftier than the one they have worshipped.”[2]

Allameh Tabatabaee, in describing the above sentences, says: in these sentences three philosophical issues are discussed:

Firstly, in understanding and knowing Allah our mental images are not at work and He is independent of our miages:

عَجَزَتْ عَنْ نَعْتِهِ أوْهامُ الوَاصِفينَ.

It is because our mind and images can not deal with Him. There is nothing for us except humbleness to offer.

Secondly, His knowledge on things is based on the entity of things, not on their images.

Thirdly, His antecedence and priority over things is not Time priority; rather, it is Absolute.

The first issue is based on the Absolute Uniqueness of Allah and the second issue is based on the Absolute Existence of Allah and the third issue is based on the Absolute infinity of God.

Ze’leb of Yemen said to Imam Ali (s): Have you seen your God?

Imam Ali (s) answered: Woe be on you. It would be impossible for me to worship Him if I had not seen Him. He asked: How? Imam Ali (s) answered: O Ze’leb, Allah may not be seen through sense eyes, but hearts have seen Him through Faith.

My God has got the most delicate meaning of delicacy; therefore He is not to be described through the ordinary meaning of kindness. He is the Greatest, but He can not be described whith the ordinary meaning of “great” as we conceive it. He is the most Glorious, but he may not be defined by our concept of glory.

Although it is necessary to make use of Nature, observing His signs and sciences and paying attention to the Islamic knowledge, He may not be described through our limited concepts and percepts. The finite concept may not describe an infinite Being.

Now that we have explained the sentence وَعَجَزَت عَنْ نَعْتِهِ أوْهَامُ الوَاصِفِينَ we may refer to a magnificent narration from Saduq’s excellent book called Touhid:

Mohammad Ibn Abi Omayr, one of the well-known narratorw, says: I went to see Musa Ibn ja’afar (s) and asked him to teach me monotheism. Imam replied: O Aba Ahmad! Concerning monotheism, do not go outside the border which the Holy Quran has set: it will cause your destruction. Be aware that He is Unique; Allah is He on Whom all depends. He begets nobody so He does not have any heirs; nor is He begotten to have associates. He did not select any companion, associate or children. He is alive, not to be dead; He is strong and Mighty, not to lose any of His Might. He is victorious, not to be defeated. He is most Patient, not to be in a hurry. He is Everlasting, not to have any end. He is so Steady as not to get destroyed. He is Constant, not to have any decay. He is Needless, not to require anything. He is Dearest, not to experience any wretchedness. He is Knowing, not to suffer from ignorance. He is Just, not to use tyranny. He is Generous, not to suffer from misery. He is the Being Whom our wisdom may not grasp, Whom our imaginations fail to comprehend. No Place may contain Him. Eyes can not see Him, but He looks all the time at our eyes. He is most Delicate and Knowing. Nothing resembles Him. He is Hearing and Seeing. When three people whisper, He is the fourth one; when fire people whisper, He is the sixth one; this is taken to mean that He is Omnipresent: He is present every where. More or less than this does not make any difference. All the existence is His Presence. He is the First, not to have any antecedenct; He is the Last, nothing coming after Him. He is Old. He will not need the attributes given Him by His creatures.[3]

In describing Him, even if we used what descriptions He, prophets, and the Infallible ones (s) have used, we would still be unable to describe Him as He deserves it. Rather, we should say: O God! You are the One You Have introduced Yourself in the Holy Quran; You are the One Whom the genuine invocations have described. But these are just a small portion of Your Attributes. What we understand from our Islamic knowledge and Heritage is in proportion to our own understanding of You; it does not fit Your Dignity. Since the beginning of our life we have tried through our knowledge, science, wisdom, divine knowledge to describe you as you deserve it, but we have failed. It is because what You possess we lack; what You are, we are not. We have to be content with worshipping You, to be Your humble servants. In this way we may prosper and we may stone the devel of tyranny and adversity away from us.

اِبْتَدَعَ بِقُدْرَتِهِ الْخَلْقَ ابتِداعاً، وَاخْتَرَعَهُم على مِشِيَّتِهِ اخْتِراعاً.

He created the creatures without any previous samples; He made them as He wished, them to be.

In the Holy Quran, the word بديع “Wonderful Originator” has been used twice:

1) In the sacred surah Baqarah (The Cow), the verse 117:

بَدِيعُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَإِذَا قَضَى أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ.

“Wonderful Originator of the heavens and the earth, and when He decrees an affair, He only says to it, Be, so there it is.”

2) And in the sacred surah Anam[The Cattle], the verse lol:

بَدِيعُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ أَنَّى يَكُونُ لَهُ وَلَدٌ وَلَمْ تَكُنْ لَهُ صَاحِبَةٌ وَخَلَقَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ.

“Wonderful Originator of the heavens and the Earth! How could He have a son when He has no consort, and He himself created everything, and He is the Knower of all things.”

In the Commentaries of the Holy Quran and narration and in the book on philosophy and lexicon, the word badi’a’ بديع is defined in the following manner bada’: بَدْع means to initiate something with no antecedent. It does not imply bringing forth out of nothing because non-existence is not the base for existence. It simply means: the entity did not exist and the sacred Being who possesses all the Attributes of Perfection created it with no previous sample.

In other words, this marvelous and wonderful drawing of creation is not the same as the painter’s painting in which colors and brushes are used; rather, it is the creator’s Determination which has produced so many strange manifestations of His Glamor.

Osul kafi and the preciouse Commentary of Nur al-Thaqelein report from Imam Baqir (s) who has said:

اِنَّ الله عَزَّوجَلَّ ابْتَدَعَ الأشياءَ كُلَّها بِعِلْمِهِ على غير مِثالٍ كانَ قَبْلَهُ، فَابتَدَعَ السّماوات وَالأرضَ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ قَبلَهُنَّ سماوات ولا أرضُونَ.

The Almighty God created everything with no previous sample; He created these with His Knowledge. He created all the skies and the earths with no precedence.[4]

Sadorl Motea’llehin, whose philosophical reasoning is unique in his well-known Asfar, writes:

وَلَيسَ الإبْداعُ وَالاِنْشاءُ تَرْكِيباً وَلا تأليفاً بَلْ تأسيساً واِخْراجاً مِنَ العَدَم إلى الوجُود.

God’s Creation is not the combining and composing of some existing things; rather, it is the creating of creatures without resort to any previous precedence. In fact, it is the creation of some entity which did not previously exist.

Mirdamad, one of the distinguished Shiite philosophers, says: “By ebdaa’ ابداع is meant the charge out of the definite non-existence into the text of being and steadiness in the eternal world.” Elsewhere he says: “By ebdaa’ ابداع is meant to originate the entity with no precedence based on matter or on Time.”[5]