Philosophy

In the view of the mystics, the Divine Essence is the “Unconditional Existence that is the Subject of Division of Existence.” This Being is incapable of being understood ... Read More In the view of the mystics, the Divine Essence is the “Unconditional Existence that is the Subject of Division of Existence.” This Being is incapable of being understood due to its limitlessness and undetermined nature. The result of the incapability of the understanding of the Divine Essence is that it no ruling is capable of being passed regarding it. This is something that the mystics have explicitly stated. The impossibility of the understanding of the Divine Essence and the incapability of passing any judgment regarding it results in many problems. For example, the Divine Essence will be incapable of being worshipped. Secondly, this contradicts the religious texts that speak of the possibility of understanding God. Thirdly, it opposes some rules that we pass regarding Him, such as “His being existent.” In order to free themselves from this problem, some mystics have admitted that it is possible to understand the Divine Essence in a somewhat ambiguous and concise manner. They have said that the demonstrations that are mentioned to prove that knowledge of the Divine Essence is impossible are specifically concerned with the complete and elaborate knowledge of God. These mystics present three important interpretations for the aforementioned “concise” knowledge. All of these mystics seek to justify the direct knowledge of the Divine Essence in such a manner that the thing that knowledge is directly concerned with is nothing but the Divine Essence. However, based upon the limitlessness of the Divine Essence, the direct understanding of God seems to be impossible, even if it be in a concise manner. This research paper divides understanding into direct and indirect knowledge. The analysis of the All-Pervasive Being and the Station of Simplicity and the discovery that these things need a reality beyond them is a type of indirect understanding of the Divine Essence that is capable of being expressed in the forms of concepts. The thing that this knowledge is related to is not the Divine Essence. So, it is not negated by the demonstrations that conclude that the Divine Essence is incapable of being understood. This knowledge is related to what the All-Pervasive Being and the Station of Simplicity externally depict, i.e. the Divine Essence that lies beyond them. This external depiction of the Divine Essence resembles a type of indirect knowledge of that Essence.

Philosophy

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Keywords = indirect knowledge of the Essence

The Problem of the Impossibility of Knowledge of the Divine Essence in Islamic Mysticism and its Resolution

Abstract