FOUNDATION OF BELIEF

SECTION 1

Praise be to God, the Creator, the First, the Last, the Doer of whatever. He wills, who guides His servants towards the true path, who makes Himself known to men that He exists by Himself without any partner, He is single without any associate, the Eternal without any before Him and without any beginning, the Everlasting without any end. He is the First, the Last, the External and the Internal; the Al-Knowing. The following beliefs aboutGod is necessary.

(1) To believe in His Transcendence. He is without body and form, free of restriction, limitation and resemblance, not divisible. Nothing is like Him and He is not like anything. He is not limited by measure, space and time. He is free from diligence, rest and change. Everything is in His grasp. He is above Arsh, above heaven and above everything. He is nevertheless llelow the deeper t depth. Yet He is near, very close to a thing, nearest to the jugular vein of a man. He ?s not in anything and nothing is in Him. He is beyond space and beyond time. He is now as He was before. He expresses Himself through. His creatures and not by existence. He is free from change, increase or decrease.

(2) To believe in His power and existence. He is Everliving, Al- powerful, Almighty, the great Destroyer..

He is free from faults and failures, slumber, sleep, disease, death. He is the Lord of the entire universe, angles and of everything. The heavens are rolled in His hands. He is unique in creation and unrivalled in ever new creations. He fixed the provision and death of created being and nothing can escape from His power. His power and might are above counting.

(3) To believe in His Knowledge. His knowledge is without limit and He knows everything. Whatever happens between the deepest abyss of the earth to the highest heaven is within His knowledge. The smallest atom in the earth or in heaven is not outside. His knowledge. He knows the creeping of an ant and on a solid stone in intense dark night or in the movement of a moste in the air.

Everything open and secret is within His knowledge Every thought in mind, every contrivance of the devil and every 1:99thought good or bad is within His knowledge. His knowledge is eternal and unlimited without any increase or decrease and without any defect.

(4) To believe in His will. Nothing comes into being small or great, good or evil, benefiting or not benefiting, faith or infidelity, known or unknown, profit or loss, sin or virtue without His order, power and will. What He will comes into being. What He does not will comes not into being. Not a glance of the eye, not a stray sudden thought in mind is outside His will. He does what He wills. There is none to rescind His command, there is no obstacle to it. There is no refuge of one who is disobedient to him. There is none to follow His command without His will. If mankind, jinn, angels and devil want to remove an atom from its proper place, they won't be able to do it without His will. His will lies naturally in His attributes which are unlimited. There is no precedence or subsequence of any event from its appointed time.

(5) To believe in His hearing and sight. He hears and sees. His hearing and sight are all pervading. Nothing however scanty can escape His hearing and nothing however subtle can go from His sight. Distance is no bar to His hearing and seeing, rather distance and nearness are all equal to Him. Darkness can not obstruct His sight. He sees without eyes, cathces without hand and creates without instrument. His attributes are not like those of the created beings as His being is not like that of the created.

(6) To believe in His words. God speaks without sound. It is eternal, ancient and self-existing unlike the talks of the created. His talk is without sound. It has got no connection with circulation of air. It does not take the help of words and languages through the movement of lips. The Quran, the Bible, the Gospel and Psalms are His created books to His Prophets. The Quran is recited by tongue, written in papers and preserved in heart, nevertheless it is eternal existing with the eternity of God. Hazrat Moses heard His words without sound and language and the righteous will see Him in the hereafter without body and space.

(7) To believe in His actions. There is no creator of actions except He and nobody is outside His judgment. He created everything in its best of make and form and no other form is (8) To believe in the other words. It is to attest to the prophethood of Muhammad. God sent the unlettered Quraishite Prophet Muhammad as an apostle to all the Arabs and non-Arabs, to the jinn and men and by his law he abrogated all other laws. He gave him superiority to all other Prophets and made him leader of mankind and did not make complete any faith with the words of Tauhid till it was followed by the attestation that Muhammad is His servant and apostle. He made compusolory to believe whatever he said about this world and the next world. He does not accept the faith of a man unless he believes in these articles of faith along with the following.

(a) To believe in Munkar and Nakir. They are two terrible angles. They will make the dead one sit up with his soul and body and ask him about his religion and his Prophet. This is the first examination after death. (b) To believe in the punishment of grave as true. (c) to, believe in the Balance with two scales and a tongue the magnitude of which is like the stages of heaven and earth. Therewith the actions of men will be weighed. The weight would be like a mote or mustard seed to establish exact justice. (d) To believe in the Bridge. It is a bridge stretched ever Hell, sharper than the edge of the sword and thinner than a hair. The feet of the unbelievers will slip and they will fall down into Hell. The feet of the believers will be firm upon it by the Grace of God and so they will cross it to paradise. (e) To believe in the Fountain. It is a fountain of the Prophet. The believers will take drink from it and enter paradise after crossing the bridge. Whoever will drink therefrom once will never be thirsty. Its water will be whiter than milk and sweeter than honey. There will be so many pitchers around like so many stars in firmament. 1:100better that in. He is wise in His actions and just in His judgments. His justice is not comparable to that of men. Whatever exists in the world, men, jinn, angels devils, heaven, earth, animals, plants, inanimate things comes out of nothing but by His power. He existed in eternity by Himself and there was nothing along with Him. Tereafter He originated creations not because of His necessity. He has got no fatigue or languor. Whatever He does is from a sense of justice, not of oppression or injustice. Obedience to Him is binding on all His creatures and He expressed it through His Prophets. He gave them miracles and conveyed His injunctions and prohibitions through them.

1:1011:102(f) To believe in the judgment. Some will render little account, some great and some will enter paradise without account. They will be in the neighborhood of God. Those who believe in Tauhid will come out of Hell after their due punishment in Hell. (g) To believe in the intercession of the Prophets then the learned, then the martyrs, then the rest of the believers. They will have the right of intercession in proportion to their ranks to God. (h) To believe in the goodness of the companions, first of Abu Bakr, then of Omar, then of Osman and then of Ali. You will have good idea about them and praise them as God and His Apostle praised them.

EXCELLENCE OF BELIEF

What has been said above about belief is applicable to a boy in his early years in order than he may commit them to memory. Its meaning will be gradually unfolded to him. The first duty of a boy is to commit them to memory, then to understand them and then to believe them and then to know them as certain and sure. It comes to his mind as a matter of course without proof. The root of faith of the ordinary people is Taqlid or blind belief on authority. True it is that the belief which is based on authority, is not free from some weakness, but when it is certain and sure, it becomes perfect. To achieve this end, one should not resort to scholastic theology but to reading the Quran, Tafsir and Hadis and to understand their meaning because in that case the light of divine service appears in him, and the advices of the pious, their company, their character arid conduct, their God- fear and their asceticism spread effect in his mind. Instruction to the boy is like the sowing of seed in his heart. The above actions are like the serving of water and tending the seed. It grows, becomes strong and thrives in to a tree and its root becomes strong and firm and its branches rise high. The boy should also be guarded against argumentation and speculation as their harms are greater than their benefits. To make faith strong by argumentation is like striking a tree with an iron matter. To teach by proof is one thing and and to see proof by eyes is another thing. It the boy wants to be included within the travellers of the hereafter with Taufiq or God's grace as his friend, the doors of guidance are opened up for him till he remains engaged in actions attached to God-fear and restrains himself from passions and lusts making efforts in discipline and self mortification. Owing to these efforts, a light from God falls in his heart as God says: Whose strives for Us, We shall guide them in our paths, for God in assuredly with those who do right -29:69Q. That is the most valuable jewel and the ultimate goal of the saints and favourites of God. That is the secret matter which rested in the breast of Hazrat Abu Bakr and for which he was superior to all others. The expression of this secrecy has got different stages. !t ;vill be open to one in proportion to ones efforts and strivings and the more one makes his soul clean and pure. It is like the learning of the mysteries of medicines, jurisprudence and other science. They differ in proportion to the differences of intellect and knowledge. As there is no limit to these stages, there is also no limit to the degrees of secrets.

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SECTION 3

PROOF OF BELIEF

Iman or belief is founded upon four pillars, each of which has got ten bases.

(1) FIRST PILLAR: It is the knowledge of essence of God and it is established upon ten bases. They are the knowledge and belief that God is existing, eternal, ancient, without form, without be y, without length and breadth, without any special direction, occupying no space, object of vision of the next world and He is one without any partner.

(2) SECOND PILLAR: It is to have knowledge of His attributes and to believe them. It is founded on ten bases-He is Al- powerful, Al-knowing. living for ever, willing, hearing, seeing, speaking, eternal in words, knowledge and will and free from changes of events.

(3) THIRD PILLAR: It is to have knowledge and faith in His works which are established over ten bases. They are that men's actions are created, willed and fixed by God, that He is kind to creatures free from imposing works beyond power of men, that He punishes men, does what He wills, that there is nothing obligatory on Him, that He sent apostles and that our Prophet was helped by miracles and that his prophethood will last till the day of Resurrection.

1:103(4) FOURTH PILLAR: It is to believe in the things accepted on authority and it is based on ten things. It is to believe in the truth of Resurrection, questions by Munkar and Nakir, punishment of grave, the Balance, the Bridge, Paradise, Hell, the true Imams, excellence of the companions in accordance with chronological order and qualifications of being an Imam.

FIRST PILLAR

The basic principles of faithfor knowledge of God (1) The first basic principle is to have knowledge of the existence of God. The first light which illuminess faith and the first thing to be followed is the Quran and there is no word better than the word of God. God says : Have I not made the earth a couch, mountains its tents? I have created you of two sexes and ordained your sleep for rest. night as a mantle and day for gaining livelieood. I created above you seven solid heavens and placed therein a burning lamp and I sent down waters in abundance from clouds that I night bring forth by it corns and herbs and gardens thick with trees-78:6. God says : In the creation of the heaven and the earth and in the alternation of night and day and in the ships which pass throught the sea with what is useful to man and in the rain which God sends down from heaven, giving life by it to the earth after its death and by sacttering over all kinds of earth and in the change of the winds and in the clouds that are made to do service between heaven and earth, are signs for those who understand-2:159. God says : Don't you see how God created the seven heavens one over the other, placed therein the moon as a light and the sun as a torch and God caused you to spring forth from the earth like a plant, He will turn you back in to it again and will bring you forth again-71:14 God said : Don't you see the germ of life? Is it you who created it or I? I have decred death among you and I shall not be overcome to change you forms and create you what you know not-56:58:

It is clear that if he who has got a little intellect and ponders over these verses and looks to the wonderful creations of the. heavens and the earth will realise that without a great Designer these workmanships are impossible. The human soul naturally testifies that God exists and that everything is governed by His Laws. For this reason God says : Is there any doubt about God, the Creator of heavens and earth (14 : 11) ? The Prophets were 1:104therefore sent by Him to call the people towards monotheism there is no deity but Got'. They were not commanded to say : For us there is one God and for the world another God, because such a thing was inborn in their minds from the time of their births. God said. If you ask them who has created the heavens and the earth they will reply 'God'. God said : Turn your face then towards the true faith, the natural religion whereon God created men-30:30. There fore there are testimonies of the Quran and human nature which are sufficient proofs. All other proofs are unnecessary but still we shall prove by the proof of knowledge that God exists.

PROOF OF KNOWLEDE

A new thing cannot come into existence without a cause. The would is an originated new thing and it did not come into existence without a cause. That a thing cannot come into existence without a cause is clear, for such a thing belongs to a certain definite time and it also comes to our intellect that it comes at a fixed time without precedence or subsequence, because of the urgency of its fixed time. The world is a new or orginated thing. Its proof is found in the fact that it is not free from motion and rest which are the characteritics of every new material thing. Even motion and rest are two new orignated things not free from changes. The world and whatever exists in it are originated things. There are three matters in this argument. Firstly, a body is not free from motion and rest. It requires no meditation. Secondly, motion and rest themselves are originated things. Its proof is that one comes after another. It is found in all bodies. What is static can move and what is moving can become static according to the dictates of intellect. If any of the above two things is predominant over the body, it becomes a new event. A new thing is originated because of its emergence an old thing is distant because of its extinction. If the eternity of a thing is established, its extinction is impossible as we shall prove it by the subsistence of the creation. Thirdly, what is not free from changes is an originated or new thing or whatever is not indepedent of originated things is itself originated. Its proof is that if it were not so, the world before every new thing may change which has got no beginning and unless these, new things come to nought, the turn for the-present new things to come into being 1:105would never come. But it is impossible for a thing which has no end to come to nought.

Another reason is that if there is no end of the motion of heavenly bodies, three conditions would arise -their numbers would be either odd or even, or both odd and even or neither odd or even. The last two are impossible, as positive and negative are united therein, since the affirmation of one is the negation of another and negation of one is the affirmation of another. They cannot be even, as even number comes odd by the addition of one. That which has no end cannot be even without change. They cannot be odd, because the number becomes even with the addition of one. How can it change into odd when its number has got no end? They cannot be even or odd as it has got no end. From this, it is concluded that the world is not free from changes and therefore it is an originated thing. When it is an originated thing, it requires a Creator to bring it into existence.

(2) The second basic principle is the knowledge that God is eternal. He has got no beginning and no end. He is the final of everything and before everything living or dead. Its proof'is this. If He were an originated thing and not eternal, He would have need of a Creator who would also have need of a Creator. Thus it would have continued without end. Whatever comes in succession ends in an ancient creator which is the first. For this reason, the Creator is the First and the Last, the Creator of the world and its Fashioner.

(3). Third basic principle. It is that God is everlasting wihtout end. He is the first and the last, the open and the secret. When the attribute of eternity has been established, his end becomes impossible. Its proof is this. If He had an end, He would have remained in two conditions, either he would come to nought by Himself or through an oposing annihilating agent. If it is possible for a thing which is self-existing to come to nought, it is also possible for that thing to come into existence. The reason is that if a thing requires a cause to come to existence, it also requires a cause to come to nought. It is not possible that a thing comes to nought after meeting with an opposing agent. If that thing which comes to nought is eternal, how does the form of existence of a thing become? It is not also possible. than an originated thing coming before an eternal thing loses its identity and existence. God is eternal as we have learnt it from previous 1:106discussions. How then did He exist in eternity with His opposite? If the opposite is an originated thing, its existence from eternity is impossible.

(4) Fourth basic principle. It is that God is wihtout form not occupying any space and free from space, motion and rest. Its proof is this. Every form occupies a space and moves and stays in it. Body has got motion and rest which are the characterof originated things. What is not free from changes is an originated thing. If any form is limited by space and is eternal, it is understood that the sustance of the creation of the world is eternal. If a man says that God has got body and occupies space, he commits blunder for using such word and not for its meaning.

(5). Fifth basic principle. It is that god is not comoposed of abody having different substances. When He does not occupy any space, He has got no body as every body is limited by space and composed of different substances. The substances of the body are not free from division, composition, motion, rest, form and quantity. These are the qualities of an originated thing. If it were possible to believe that the Creator of the world has got a body, then it would be possible to attribute divinity of the sun and the moon and other heavenly bodies. If a designer wishes to make a body without the substance of body, he will commit mistake.

(6) Sixih basil principle. God has got no length and breadth as these are attributes of a body which is an originated thing. Its Creater exised from before it. So how would He enter in a body as He existed by Himself before all originated things and there was nobody along with Him. He is Alknowing, Almighty, Willing creator. These attributes are impossible for a body. He is not like any worldly thing, rather He is ever-living, ever-lasting and noting is like Him. Where is the similarity of the Creator with the created, the Fashioner with the fashioned? Hence it is impossible that anything is like Him.

(7) Seventh basic principle. It is that God is not confined within any direction as he created direction, either above or below, right or left. front or behind. He created two directions for man, one rests on earth called the direction of feet and one above his head. What rests above head is above and what rests below feet is below. To an ant, below the roof, the above portion is it lower side and the lower side is it upper side; though they are contrary in our case. He created for man two hands, one right hand and another left. Accordingly there is right hand direction and the left hand direction. Then there are front direction and back direction. When direction is an originated thing, how can He be governed by that ? Along with the creation of men, directions have been created. There is nothing above God, because He has got no head and the word 'above' is connected with head. There is noting below Him as the word 'below' is conneted with feet and God has no feet. If He is above the world, there is a direction opposite to it and every opposite thing has got a body like it or similar to it. But God is free from it. He is unique, He is the Designer.

(8) Eighth basic principle. It is that 'od is soated upon His Throne, that is upon power. It is not inconsistet with the attribute of His grandeur and the symptoms of origination and annihilation. This is what is meant by the following verse of the Quran : Then He ascended to heaven and it was then but smoke-41:10. It means his dominion and power as the poet said :

Bishr has gained power in Iraq. Without sword and shedding blood.

The people of truth accepted this interpretation as the people of untruth were compelled to accept the interpretation of these words of God : He is with you wherever you are (57:4). This means that He encompasses everything. This is supported by the following Hadis :'The heart of a believer in is with two fingers of the Merciful,' meaning within His power or might. It is also supported by the following Hadis : 'The Block stone is the right hand of God in the earth,' meaning it is established on honour in the earth. If its meaning is taken literally, the result would be impossible. His taking rest on the Throne means this. If it is taken literally, it becomes possible to believe that He has got a bod - and the Throne is also a body limited by space. It is impossible.

(9) Ninth basic principle. It is that although God is free from form,, space and direction, He is an object to be seen in the hereafter as He said : On that day shall faces beam with light looking towards their Lord-75 : 22. He is not visible in this world as God said : Vision does not comprehend Him, but He 1:108comprehends vision-6:103; also because of the following verse: God addressed Moses saying : You cannot see Me-7: 139.1 don't understand how the Mutazalites hold that God is visible in this world also though Moses could not see Him. Insight is a kind of Kashf and knowledge, and Kashf is more clear than knowledge. When God has got connection with knowledge and not with direction, He has got connection also with insight without any direction. As God sees His creation though not in front, the creation -also sees Him though not in front. As it is possible to know Him without modality or form, it is also possible to see Him likewise.

(10) Tenth basic principle. It is that God is one without any partner, single without any like. He is unique in every new creations, innovations, and inventions. There is nothing like Him. The Quran says : Had there been any other god therein, they would have gone to ruin-21 : 22. If the first God willed something, the second would have been compelled to him. This means that he would have no supreme power. If the second is to oppose the first, he would be powerful and the first would be weak rather than an almighty God.