Wilayat, Proximity, and Divine Awareness: A Philosophical and Theological Analysis

Unity of Existence and Knowledge

The essence of existence, which is the Divine Essence, is identical with the essence of knowledge. They overlap in their manifestations and states. The reality of existence equates with life, knowledge, love, goodness, desirability, unity, personality, individuality, truth, and veracity. Existence and its attributes are simple, indefinable, and indivisible. They are known to the intellect in the stated order. Later attributes become more evident upon reflection.

Due to the simplicity of existence, life, knowledge, love, and unity are identical with its essence. They also equate with beauty, goodness, and virtue. Existence and knowledge share many traits, including conceptual clarity, truth, simplicity, and indefinability. Thus, knowledge, like existence, is supremely evident. Nothing is more evident than existence.

Knowledge, like the reality of existence and its phenomena, is evident and self-sustaining. It illuminates others. Existence, knowledge, manifestation, and awareness are united in their instances. They differ in concept and rational analysis. Both the Divine and its manifestations possess perception, knowledge, and awareness. Knowledge adapts to each realm or presence. Due to its simplicity, knowledge remains consistent across contexts. There is no distinction between clear and obscure knowledge. Divine manifestations and phenomena are identical with awareness.

Supreme Awareness through Unity

The most potent awareness arises from unity. It removes boundaries between the knowing subject, the known object, and the specified known. The unity of intellect, knower, and known—or knowledge, knower, and object—manifests relatively. This depends on the degree of manifestation. The knowing soul, with its capacity for presence, becomes the present known. It assumes its form. Their manifestation unifies by removing distinctions.

If the knowing subject transcends its manifest distinction, it achieves annihilation in divine illumination. This leads to greater perfection and expansion. It also gains the power to externalize the effects of the known onto its own phenomenon. This goes beyond merely manifesting the known. The role of transcending distinction in generating knowledge categorizes divine scholars and saintly humans. They are grouped based on their capacity to transcend distinction and their mode of annihilation and subsistence.

Like the phenomena of existential reality, which divide into gradational manifestations and varying transformative degrees, human knowledge is similarly divisible. Knowledge and awareness, as meaningful names, possess objective individuality in an attributive sense. Wherever individuality exists, there is a degree, relativity, specific quality, and unique measure. Each has a distinct ruling. A change in degree alters the subject, requiring a new specific ruling.

Degrees of Awareness and Stations of the Proximate

The infinite phenomena and manifestations of existence have an insatiable desire and boundless aspirations. Knowing subjects and degrees of mystical and cognitive individuals are infinite and unbound. Awareness brings expansive manifestation. Given the infinite degrees of divine manifestation and the limitless actuality of divine appearances and hiddenness, knowledge and awareness are boundless.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said:

“There is no Friday night without joy for the friends of God.” The narrator asked, “How so, may I be your ransom?” He replied, “On Friday nights, the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) approaches the Throne, as do the Imams (peace be upon them), and I with them. I return only with acquired knowledge. Without this, what I possess would be exhausted.”

The ocean of awareness and recognition has no shore, breadth, depth, or height. Each person, based on their proximity, love, and unity, has a unique mode of navigation and immersion. Divine scholars are divided into four groups based on their renunciation of desire, annihilation, and the scope of their knowledge, wisdom, and insights: supererogatory proximate, obligatory proximate, comprehensive proximate combining both, and absolute proximate who freely enter any proximity.

The basis of this division is solely the mode of proximity to the Divine. The ultimate aim of their knowledge and actions is the Divine. Through divine proximity, they become divine humans with unique awareness.

Human Desire and Absolute Perfection

Humans have an insatiable desire and seek absolute perfection. Absolute perfection is attainable only through complete renunciation of desire, pure love, bodiless unity, and breaking distinctions. For supererogatory proximate, the Divine is their means of perception and action. This results in the annihilation of attributes and adoption of divine ethics as tools of knowledge.

Human aspects dissolve into divine aspects. The Divine, in its lordship, becomes the source of the servant’s attributes and actions. Previously, the servant was the source from a human perspective. The servant’s distinction persists. In this proximity, the Divine becomes the servant’s ear, eye, hand, and knowledge instrumentally. Intense love and proximity make the Divine the servant’s faculties. The servant undertakes actions for divine proximity, resulting in active annihilation. The servant remains the focus.

Obligatory proximate, conversely, are the Divine’s means of perception and action. For example, a worshiper utters “God hears those who praise Him” with the Divine’s tongue and hears with the Divine’s ear. This proximity is the station of essential annihilation and universal guardianship. The servant accesses the essence of divine knowledge, the secret of destiny, measure-knowledge, and the hidden core of all things collectively.

In obligatory proximity, the servant performs divinely mandated actions. This leads to essential annihilation and erasure of creaturely aspects. The Divine is the agent. The servant’s faculties are the means.

Narrations on Proximity

The states of supererogatory and obligatory proximate are described in the following narration:

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) said: When the Prophet (peace be upon him) was taken on the Night Journey, he asked, “O Lord, what is the state of the believer with You?” God replied, “O Muhammad, whoever insults My friend openly challenges Me to battle. I am swiftest in aiding My friends. I hesitate in nothing I do as I hesitate in taking the believer’s soul, for he dislikes death, and I dislike distressing him. Some of My believing servants are reformed only by wealth; if I turned them otherwise, they would perish. Others are reformed only by poverty; if I changed their state, they would perish. No servant draws near to Me with anything more beloved than what I have obligated. Through supererogatory acts, he draws near until I love him. When I love him, I become his hearing, sight, tongue, and hand. If he calls Me, I answer; if he asks, I grant.”

In this narration, obligatory proximity is mentioned first. Here, the servant is the Divine’s tool and lives in essential annihilation. This is followed by supererogatory proximity, where the Divine is the servant’s tool, and the servant is in attributive annihilation.

Comprehensive and Absolute Proximity

Two further proximities arise from these. Comprehensive proximity combines supererogatory and obligatory proximity. It is the station of subsistence after annihilation. Absolute proximity is the station of singular unity. Comprehensive proximate possess both proximities actively. They enjoy the perfection of unity by divine grace.

Absolute proximate are unbound by these states. They can manifest in any proximity or combination without restriction. They dwell in the station of singularity. Their four journeys are not sequential. They can, by will, know anything through the secret of destiny and the fixed essences.

Narrations describe the Imam’s knowledge as voluntary and subject to divine will:

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: “When the Imam wills to know, he knows.” Another narration states: “When the Imam wills to know, he is informed.”

An example of voluntary awareness is in the Quran (6:79):

“I have turned my face sincerely toward He who created the heavens and the earth, and I am not of the polytheists.”

That phenomena are not veiled is one matter. That they are intentionally attended to and made present for awareness is another. The divine human can perceive anything within anything. They are a perfect manifestation of “One whom no affair distracts from another.” They encompass the apparent and hidden, uniting divine names of the manifest and hidden. They observe all divine names in any name where singular unity manifests. This is the highest station of universal guardianship.

Prophetic and Imamic Knowledge

Amir al-Mu’minin (peace be upon him) said:

“The Messenger of God (peace be upon him) taught me a thousand doors of lawful and unlawful, of what was and will be until the Day of Resurrection. Each door opens a thousand doors, making a million doors. Thus, I knew the science of destinies, calamities, and decisive speech.”

He also described his knowledge:

“I possess hidden knowledge. If I revealed it, you would tremble like ropes in a deep, unseen well.”

Knowledge cannot be transmitted without proper connection. Amir al-Mu’minin (peace be upon him) said:

“By God, if I wished, I could tell each of you his origin, destination, and all his affairs. But I fear you would disbelieve in me regarding the Messenger of God (peace be upon him). I will disclose to the select who are safe from disbelief.”

The Quran (9:105) states:

“Say, ‘Act, and God, His Messenger, and the believers will see your deeds. You will be returned to the Knower of the unseen and seen, and He will inform you of what you did.’”

The unity of vision among God, the Messenger, and believers indicates their shared nature. The divine human, in essential annihilation and singular unity, is a vast manifestation of divine names, attributes, and limitless divine manifestations. They encompass fixed essences. Yet, they remain thirsty for more divine encounters. Each manifestation is unique. This describes the divine human’s heart.

A sacred hadith states:

“God says: ‘My earth and heavens cannot contain Me, but the heart of My believing servant contains Me.’”

The infinite divine essence and its ever-new manifestations make true knowledge unattainable. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

“We have not worshiped You as You deserve, nor known You as You deserve.”

Divine manifestations in the Throne, Chair, heavens, and earth are like a ring in a vast desert within the divine human’s heart. This heart encompasses them and can know them voluntarily. The Quran (4:113) states:

“God sent down to you the Book and wisdom, teaching you what you did not know. God’s grace upon you is immense.”

Amir al-Mu’minin (peace be upon him) claimed universal knowledge:

“People, ask me before you lose me. I know the paths of the heavens better than those of the earth, before a trial arises that treads freely, destroying its people’s reason.”

Objection and Response

An objection arises from Imam Baqir’s (peace be upon him) mention of a reserved letter:

“God’s greatest name has seventy-three letters. Asaph knew one, spoke it, and the earth between him and Bilqis’s throne sank, allowing him to take it. The earth returned instantly. We have seventy-two letters, and one remains with God, reserved in His unseen knowledge. There is no power except with God, the Exalted, the Mighty.”

This is addressed by the Quran (72:26-28):

“Knower of the unseen, He reveals His unseen to none except a messenger He approves.”

A narration states:

Muhammad ibn al-Fadl al-Hashimi said: After Imam Kazim’s (peace be upon him) martyrdom, I visited Imam Rida (peace be upon him). He said to Amr ibn Haddab, “If I told you that you will soon be afflicted by a kinsman’s blood, would you believe me?” He replied, “No, only God knows the unseen.” Imam Rida said, “Does God not say, ‘Knower of the unseen, He reveals His unseen to none except a messenger He approves’? The Prophet (peace be upon him) was approved, and we are his heirs, knowing what was and will be until the Day of Resurrection.”

The reserved letter is knowable through essential annihilation. The divine human, through self-annihilation, pervades realities. They know the unseen essence, its effects, and the truths of divine names in detail.

Comprehensive Observation and Perfect Simplicity

Observing the Divine, per the “all-things” rule, is observing all things. This precedes their creaturely manifestation. Such knowledge pertains to divine unity, not their specific manifestation. Specific manifestations are non-eternal and inaccessible with distinction.

Knowing any manifest entity, which is simple and unified yet bears multiple essential predicates, is knowing all its predicates. These predicates, unified in the entity, arise from the Divine’s essential aspect, not its conditioned or causal aspect. They are fixed essences, neither created nor uncreated. They exist with the Divine’s essence, united with it. They are known eternally through unified knowledge. Thus, knowledge of things in the divine essence, before their external manifestation, is neither general nor detailed.

Fixed essences are necessary truths of divine names and attributes. They are hidden in the Divine’s essence and do not transition from unseen to seen. The divine human’s knowledge of them is divine-like, not of an absent unseen. Imam Sadiq’s mention of one science does not negate the other. He said:

“God has two sciences: a hidden, treasured science known only to Him, from which bada’ arises, and a science taught to His angels, messengers, and prophets, which we know.”

Another narration states:

Yunus ibn Ribat said: I and Kamil al-Tammar visited Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him). Kamil said, “May I be your ransom, a narration from so-and-so?” The Imam said, “Mention it.” Kamil said, “The Prophet (peace be upon him) taught Ali (peace be upon him) a thousand doors on the day of his passing, each opening a thousand doors, making a million doors.” The Imam said, “That was so.” I asked, “May I be your ransom, has any of this appeared to your followers?” He said, “O Kamil, one or two doors.” I said, “From your million doors, only one or two are narrated?” He said, “What do you expect to narrate of our grace? You can narrate only an unconnected alif.”

The unconnected alif, in the Kufic script, is an incomplete, short alif.