A Noteworthy Debate Between Imam al-Rida and a Heretic on Divine Unity

Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, was travelling toward Marw unwillingly, under compulsion and reluctance. The hadith scholars of Nishapur gathered around the Imam’s litter and said: “O son of the Messenger of God, you are leaving us; will you not relate a hadith so that we may benefit from you?”

The horizon of creation is not limited to what human beings can see. Beyond human sensory perception there is also a realm: a realm created by God, which the Truth, exalted is He, brought into being as a luminous world; a realm created long before this world. In that world of light, God’s first creatures came into existence.

They were creatures placed at the height of creation. God’s first creatures were the fourteen pure lights: sacred lights beyond the reach of those in heaven and on earth. God created them and placed them at the highest rank of being. Their immense grandeur and luminosity cannot be comprehended even by profound minds. They stand on such a lofty horizon that those who covet comprehension of them are addressed by the words, “Minds have gone astray and intellects have become bewildered.”(1) For minds go astray in comprehending them, and imaginations too become astonished and confused.

These fourteen sacred lights are the divine successors upon the earth. God bestowed a favor upon the community of the end times and placed them on earth for guidance. They are Imams who stepped down from the world of sanctity and light into this dark world. Thus, in the visitation prayer for Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, we address him: “Peace be upon you, O light of God in the darknesses of the earth.”(2) Yes, the Imam is God’s light: the same light of which God Almighty says in the Noble Qur’an, “God is the light of the heavens and the earth...”

Can a dark earthly human being take the place of God’s light? Even if all the “people of loosening and binding” were to turn toward him, the dark and obscured human being cannot replace God’s light. This is why Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, says: “It is on a horizon such that hands and eyes cannot reach it...” (3) He stands on a lofty horizon where hands and sight are incapable and helpless of reaching him.

Such a person’s relation to the caliphate is like the axle of a millstone: if God’s light is removed from the caliphate, it is as though the mill turns without an axle, while a mill can never turn without its own axle. As history has shown, the caliphate of earthly human beings has never brought the caravan of humanity to its intended destination.

This is why Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Commander of the Faithful, may God’s blessings be upon him, says: “The torrent flows down from me, and birds cannot rise to me.”(4) Knowledge flows from the slopes of my mountain, and the swift-flying birds of thought cannot reach the height of my knowledge and worth. Thinkers and scholars strive at the utmost limit of their ambition to inscribe upon paper the loftiest virtues and highest perfections that their thought can contain and their imagination can conceive; but where are those forms and descriptions, and where is the reality of those sacred lights?!

They are noble ones who, in the order of the creation of beings, are the first creation of the Powerful Creator. When there was neither world nor human being, neither spirit nor angel, they were present. In the court of divine holiness, they proclaimed God’s transcendence and sanctity, glorifying and sanctifying their Creator. When the Exalted Truth created the angels, so that the angels—because of the majesty and elevation of the light of these chosen ones—would not suppose them to be their gods, they themselves glorified God before the angels.(5) Their sacred lights glorified God. From the glorification of these sacred lights, the angels learned glorification; from the declaration of God’s oneness by the Ahl al-Bayt, the angels began declaring the oneness of their Lord; and from the magnification of the lights of the Prophet and his purified progeny, the angels learned the takbir. They did not merely teach the angels the verbal forms of glorification, declaration of oneness, and magnification(6); rather, they taught the angels brought near to God the transcendence of God and divine unity.

This is why Imam al-Hadi, peace be upon him, the tenth sacred light of the Imamate, says: “Whoever professes His oneness has accepted it from you...” (7) Whoever has known God as one and become a monotheist has learned it from the household of prophecy and accepted it from you. These sacred lights are the teachers of divine unity to the angels and the instructors of divine unity to earthly human beings. To turn away from their door is to turn away from divine unity; and if you seek divine unity elsewhere, it is polytheism that has taken on the color of divine unity.

The angels too, although created in a realm above this world, could not put on the garment of divine unity except when they bent the knee of courtesy and humility before these sacred lights and, following these lights, became speakers of glorification, sanctification, praise, and declaration of oneness, and thus became monotheists. Yes, through following and obeying those luminous stations and the infallible teachers of divine unity, the angels were able to grasp divine unity and become true monotheists, in the manner with which God would be pleased.

Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, was travelling toward Marw unwillingly, under compulsion and reluctance. The hadith scholars of Nishapur gathered around the Imam’s litter and said: “O son of the Messenger of God, you are leaving us; will you not relate a hadith so that we may benefit from you?” They were hadith scholars who may not have believed in his Imamate, yet they could not deny his knowledge and greatness. The Imam, peace be upon him, raised his head from the litter and said:

The phrase of divine unity is God’s fortress. The people of divine unity are in the impregnable fortress of the Lord. Those who enter this secure refuge will be safe from the punishment of hell. What great glad tidings this hadith gives to monotheists: their divine unity has placed them in the Lord’s impregnable fortress. Are hypocrites who claim divine unity also included in this impregnable fortress? Will everyone who claims divine unity in whatever manner be safe from divine punishment? In any case, Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, uttered this noble hadith, and the litter moved on through the hadith scholars. When he had passed among the transmitters, the celestial call of the eighth sacred divine light rose to them: “With its conditions, and I am among its conditions.”(9)

Entry into the divine fortress is not attained merely by saying “There is no god but God,” for the phrase of divine unity becomes God’s impregnable fortress only when the person becomes a monotheist by uttering it. If one does not become a monotheist, divine punishment is not removed from him. Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, is a condition of the phrase of divine unity. By accepting the guardianship of, and obeying, the Eighth Imam, this condition and the other conditions are fulfilled, and “There is no god but God” becomes the divine fortress. Acceptance of Imam al-Rida’s Imamate is a condition through whose fulfillment the remaining conditions are also fulfilled, because whoever accepts Imam al-Rida’s Imamate also acknowledges the guardianship and Imamate of the rest of the pure Imams. Divine unity with this condition is the very religion by which the angels brought near to God worship and through which they have become close to the divine court.

Nevertheless, although the Imam holds such a lofty station in the Shi‘i view, our approach to the question of Imamate is merely theological. We consider Imamate in opposition to those who do not regard it as divine and do not see the Imam as appointed by the Lord. Although the Shi‘a’s principal effort throughout its history has been to preserve and protect the Imamate appointed by God, and this remains a Shi‘i necessity until the appearance of the Master of the Age, may God hasten his relief, one must not overlook that the Imam has an exalted rank. Attention to that issue should not distance Shi‘i society from the pure teachings of Imamate. The distance of Shi‘i society from the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them, opens the way for the doubts cast by human and jinn devils; then false beliefs and practices easily become widespread in society.

Among the Ahl al-Bayt of infallibility and purity, Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, formally took part in debate gatherings. Al-Ma’mun sought to expose the defeat and error of Ali ibn Musa al-Rida, peace be upon him, in debates.(10) For this reason, al-Ma’mun arranged many debates with claimants to thought and leaders of religions and schools. Apart from formal debate sessions, people of knowledge and inquiry would, whenever able, reach the pure Imams and engage in discussion and questioning.

A very important point is that those who were in the utmost opposition to Islam and religion debated with the Imam. Thus, the furthest doubts that could be raised were raised in the Imam’s presence, and the infallible ones, peace be upon them, answered these doubts well. Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Khurasani, the servant of Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, related one of these debate sessions as follows:

One day, a heretic—a person who denies the existence of a Creator for the universe—came before the Imam while a group was present. The Imam said: Tell me, if the truth were as you say—though it is not—would we not be equal? Would our prayers, fasting, almsgiving, and beliefs have caused us no harm? The heretic said nothing. Then the Imam said: And if the truth were as we say—and it is indeed so—would you not have perished while we were saved?

In truth, this rebuke of the Imam, peace be upon him, addresses the reason of one who denies God. That which you deny and upon whose denial you insist is of great importance, and the possibility of your eternal destruction is very great. Therefore, although the heretic remains silent in answer to the Imam’s question, he leaves behind his certain stance of denial and asks the Imam, peace be upon him, about correct belief in this way:

The heretic said: May God grant you kindness and mercy; explain to me what God is like and where He is. The Imam said: “Woe to you! What you have imagined is wrong. He created place and location; He existed when no place or location existed. He created modality; He existed when there was no how-ness or modality. Therefore He cannot be perceived through modality, place, location, or the senses, and He resembles nothing.”

In these few short yet meaningful statements of the Imam, peace be upon him, there are certain general rules and principles of divine unity, though there is no room here to discuss them. Yet from the outward sense of these luminous words, one can clearly understand that Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, presents God as the Creator of everything, even “time,” “place,” and “modality,” and assigns a beginning of existence to these three elements, which are in fact three characteristics of creatures; he regards them as preceded by nonexistence. Consequently, everything created by God is preceded by nonexistence, contrary to the well-known view and belief of philosophers who regard the universe as eternal and not preceded by real nonexistence. It seems that, for the first time, the heretic has found a clear and transparent statement about God Almighty: a God beyond time and place. So he asks a precise question: The man said: Now that He cannot be perceived by any of the five senses, then He does not exist at all!

The heretic had correctly understood that something free of time and place and beyond them could not be perceived by the five senses. Since he assumed that everything which exists must be sensible, he judged: “Since He is not perceptible, He does not exist.” The answer of Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, is also extremely precise—an answer whose careful consideration responds to many doubts and questions concerning divine unity and knowledge of God. Perhaps questions of this kind are abundant in minds without having found an answer. The Imam, peace be upon him, said: “Woe to you! Because your senses are incapable of perceiving Him, do you deny His lordship? Whereas when we are incapable of perceiving Him, we become certain that He is our Lord and that He is something unlike all other things.”(13)

In truth, Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, explained the monotheistic principle to which the Qur’an speaks: “Nothing is like Him.” God has no likeness. In the words of the Eighth Imam, when we find that He lies beyond our senses and our minds cannot offer us an image of Him(11), we become certain that He is our Lord. For God Almighty alone is unlike anything and has no resemblance. The created mind cannot have any understanding of the existence of such a being; it can only acknowledge His existence through rational proof and affirm that He is, just as Ali ibn Abi Talib, the master of monotheists, may God’s blessings be upon him, says: “The perfection of knowing Him is affirming Him.”(12) The summit of knowledge of the Creator is affirming His existence: affirming a God who exists but, unlike all creatures, has no common genus with His creation. The heretic’s questions about divine unity continued, and after one question and a lengthy answer, the heretic accepted Islam.

The above text is a brief portion of this long debate, so that it may become clear that many teachings are hidden in the brief words of the Ahl al-Bayt, teachings of which their Shi‘a are heedless. May the heedlessness of the lovers and devotees of the Ahl al-Bayt turn into wakefulness, and may they return with heart and soul to the words and teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt.

1. Al-Ihtijaj ‘ala Ahl al-Lijaj, vol. 2, p. 435, Sermon of Marw.

2. ‘Uyun Akhbar al-Rida, peace be upon him, vol. 2, p. 269, chapter 68, on the visitation of al-Rida in Tus, p. 267.

3. Al-Ihtijaj ‘ala Ahl al-Lijaj, vol. 2, p. 435.

4. Nahj al-Balagha, sermon 3, known as al-Shaqshaqiyya.

5. Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 15, first chapter.

6. Tahlil: “There is no god but God”; takbir: “God is greatest”; tahmid: “Praise be to God.”

7. Mafatih al-Jinan, by the late Muhaddith Qummi, al-Ziyara al-Jami‘a al-Kabira.

8. Al-Amali of Shaykh al-Saduq, translation by Kamara’i, text 235, forty-first session.

9. Al-Ihtijaj, vol. 2, p. 455; ‘Uyun Akhbar al-Rida, vol. 2, p. 231, chapter 57.

10. Whatever comes to the mind, and of which the mind presents an image, has time, place, and modality and is created, even with the most precise distinctions and rational analyses. One may form mental images of angels, jinn, and imaginary beings, but never of God; for what you construct in your mind is your creation, and your creation cannot be the Creator. Thus God is beyond sensory perception. Hence it is said: “Whatever you distinguish with your imaginations in its most subtle meanings is a created and fashioned thing like yourselves, returned to you.” That is, whatever you distinguish by your imaginations, even in its most subtle meanings, is created and fashioned like you—it is not the Creator—and returns to you. (Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 66, p. 292, chapter 37, Attributes of the best servants and saints).

11. Nahj al-Balagha, first sermon.

12. Al-Ihtijaj, Ja‘fari translation, vol. 2, p. 368.