Muʿjam al-Aḥādīth al-Muʿtabara · Hadith 13

The Book of Divine Unity · God’s Knowledge and Power · Volume 1, book 4, chapter 5, Hadith 13

Original Arabic text

[349/13] التوحيد: حمزة العلوي، عن علي، عن أبيه، عن ابن أبي عمير، عن ابن اذينة، عن أبي عبد الله عليه السلام في قوله عزوجل مَا يَكُونُ مِن نَّجْوَىٰ ثَلَاثَةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ رَابِعُهُمْ وَلَا خَمْسَةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ سَادِسُهُمْ وَلَا أَدْنَىٰ مِن ذَٰلِكَ وَلَا أَكْثَرَ إِلَّا هُوَ مَعَهُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كَانُوا فقال: هو واحد أحدي الذات، بائن من خلقه، وبذاك وصف نفسه، وهو بكل شئ محيط بالاشراف والاحاطة والقدرة، لا يعزب عنه مثقال ذرة في السماوات ولا في الارض ولا أصغر من ذلك ولا أكبر بالاحاطة والعلم لا بالذات لان الاماكن محدودة تحويها حدود أربعة فإذا كان بالذات لزمه الحواية

Published English translation

13. [13/349] al-Tawhid: Hamza al-Alawi from Ali from his father from Ibn Abi Umayr from Ibn Udhayna from Abi Abdillah عليه السلام about His words Mighty and Majestic: “there is no private conversation of three but He is the fourth of them, nor of five but He is the sixth of them - and no less than that and no more except that He is with them wherever they are” (58:7). He (the Imam) said: He is One. Unique in Essence. Distinct from His creation. That is how He described Himself. He encompasses everything in terms of (His) supervision, awareness and power (over them). Nothing escapes Him even the weight of a particle in the Heavens and in the Earth nor smaller than that or larger - in terms of awareness and knowledge not by (His) essence, for locations (space) are bounded, delimited by the four bounds (left-side, right-side, in-front, behind), so if it was (that He was encompassing) by essence than that would necessarily imply containment (which is impossible for Him).

Narrator and transmission

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Attributed scholarly assessments

Shaykh Asif al-Mohseni: معتبر

Muʿjam al-Aḥādīth al-Muʿtabara

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translator: Ammaar Muslim
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