Such is also the case in respect to the possibility of their
understanding the things of the Day of Judgment. These have also
been mentioned in terms which they can imagine. So now when the Law
has adopted this course about the apparent description of God, there
arises no doubt about him. For when it is said that He is Light or that
there is a curtain of light upon Him, as is mentioned in the Quran and
authentic Traditions, and when it is said that the Faithful will see
Him on the Day of Judgement as they see the sun, there arises no doubt
or suspicion out of it for the common or the learned people. It is so
because to the learned it is quite clear that that condition will be
an addition to our former knowledge. But when this is disclosed to
the common people, they cannot understand it, and hence they either
disbelieve the whole of the Law, or consider its exponent to be an
infidel. So one who adopts a method other than that laid down by the
Law in this respect, certainly goes astray. If you look a little
intently it will become clear to you, that in spite of the fact that
the Law has not given illustration of those things for the common
people, beyond which their imagination cannot go, it has also informed
the learned men of the underlying meanings of those illustrations. So
it is necessary to bear in mind the limits which the Law has set about
the instruction of every class of men, and not to mix them together.
For in this manner the purpose of the Law is multiplied. Hence it is
that the Prophet has said, “We, the prophets, have been commanded to
adapt ourselves to the conditions of the people, and address them
according to their intelligence.” He who tries to instruct all the
people in the matter of religion, in one and the same way, is like a
man who wants to make them alike in actions too, which is quite against
apparent laws and reason.
From the foregoing it must have become clear to you that the divine
vision has an exoteric meaning in which there is no doubt, if we take
the words of the Quran about God as they stand, that is, without
proving or disproving the anthropomorphic attribute of God. Now since
the first part of the Law has been made quite clear as to God’s purity,
and the quantity of the teaching fit for the common people, it is time
to begin the discussion about the actions of God, after which our
purpose in writing this tractate will be over.
OF THE ACTIONS OF GOD
In this section we will take up five questions, around which all others
in this connection revolve. In the first place a proof of the creation
of the universe; secondly, the advent of the prophets; thirdly,
predestination and fate; fourthly, Divine justice and injustice; and
fifthly, the Day of Judgment.
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