Document Type : Research Paper
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Abstract
A large portion of discussions about God’s names and attributes is devoted to narrative attributes of God, i.e. divine attributes referred to in the Quran and Hadith. From the early days of Islam, Muslims asked questions as to whether God has limbs similar to other creatures. After the Holy Prophet of Islam passed away, the Ummah became divided into different groups holding different views about the narrative attributes of God: Ashā'irah, Karāmiah, and Ekhbāriah who accepted the divine attributes without interpretation and opposed the intervention of reasoning in that (supporters of tashbih); mystics and some philosophers, including Mulla Sadra who believed that God is essentially single and thus Munazzah; still, He reveals Himself through the attributes of creatures, and is, thus, Mushabbah (supporters of tashbih-tanzih) and finally Shiites and Mu’tazilah who interpreted the narrative attributes of God (supporters of ta’vil). The third group holds the right view. This article addresses the principality of existence, gradation and modulation of existence and unity of existence. It is recommended that a new system based on the principality of essence, rejection of congruity, spiritual commonality, and gradation and modulation of existence replace the existential theories of Transcendental Philosophy in order to better explain the theory of pure tanzih.
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