Muʿjam al-Aḥādīth al-Muʿtabara · Hadith 5

The Book of Divine Unity · Negation of any Possibility of Seeing or Imagining God · Volume 1, book 4, chapter 3, Hadith 5

Original Arabic text

[324/5] الكافي: محمد بن يحيى، عن أحمد بن محمد بن عيسى، عن ابن أبي نجران، عن عبدالله بن سنان، عن أبي عبدالله عليه السلام في قوله: لَّا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَبْصَارُ قال: إحاطة الوهم ألا ترى إلى قوله: قَدْ جَاءَكُم بَصَائِرُ مِن رَّبِّكُمْ ليس يعني بصر العيون فَمَنْ أَبْصَرَ فَلِنَفْسِهِ ليس يعني من البصر بعينه وَمَنْ عَمِيَ فَعَلَيْهَا ليس يعني عمى العيون إنما عنى إحاطة الوهم كما يقال: فلان بصير بالشعر، وفلان بصير بالفقه، وفلان بصير بالدراهم، وفلان بصير بالثياب، الله أعظم من أن يرى بالعين

Published English translation

5. [5/324] al-Kafi: Muhammad b. Yahya from Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Isa from Ibn Abi Najran from Abdallah b. Sinan from Abi Abdillah عليه السلام about His words: “sights (Absar) do not reach Him” (6:103) - he (the Imam) said: (It means) comprehension by the imagination (is impossible for Him). Do you not see His words: “There have come to you insights (Basair) from your Lord” (6:104) - He does not mean sighting of the eyes. “Whosoever will see (Absara) then it will be for his own self” (6:104) - He does not mean by (the word) ‘see’ through his eye. “and whoever is blind is against it” (6:104) - He does not mean the blindness of the eyes. He means comprehension by the imagination - as is said: So-and-so is insightful (Basir) in poetry, So-and-so is insightful in jurisprudence, So-and-so is insightful in coins (telling forgeries from the real thing), So-and-so is insightful in clothes. Allah is greater than to be seen by the eye.

Narrator and transmission

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Attributed scholarly assessments

Shaykh Asif al-Mohseni: معتبر

Muʿjam al-Aḥādīth al-Muʿtabara

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