Knowing the Creator between rational possibility and human inability

Safa’ al-Din al-Khazraji

Summary
There is a problematic entailing that the human perceptual  system is not only limited but also unable to perceive the absolute and eternal issues; therefore, human intelligence is impossible to realize and perceive the absolute reality of God although human intelligence itself deems necessary to recognize the Creator, either because it is rationally obligatory to thank the munificent power or because of many other reasons.

The current essay sheds light on the issue of the recognition of God between rational possibility and human inability, through disintegrating the ranks of the recognition of God, both the possible and the impossible, in order to remove this apparent contradiction that are appertained to the intelligence.

The recognition of God is one of the central issues of the Islamic view of the world, since this issue stands for the foundation on which all other creedal and doctrinal issues are based, such as the issues of the recognition of the Prophet, the recognition of the Imam, and eschatology as well as all other secondary issues and laws that branch from these major ones, such as prayer, fasting, Hajj pilgrimage and so on. At the strength of this fact, the recognition of the Supreme Principle is the wellspring of all other recognitions and beliefs. This fact can easily be understood from the Holy Prophet who is reported to have said: “Recognition of God is the support and basis of the religion.”

On the basis of this, the ranks of recognition directly reflect powerfully or weakly on the other beliefs, behaviors and lifestyle of man in this worldly life. Likewise, on account of man’s ranks of recognition, his situation in the Hereafter is decided. However, the validity of all these suppositions primarily depends on proving the possibility of man’s recognizing the Creator, since this issue is challenged by the problematic of human mentality’s inability to recognize the Absolute God, since man’s mentality and intellect are finite, restricted, and too failing to recognize the Infinite, Absolute Being. Thus, it is impossible for the finite and restricted intellect to comprehend the Absolute Fact.

The current essay is an attempt to give adequate answers to this problematic by means of distinguishing between the ranks of recognition and disintegrating its circles. As a next step, the essay reviews the researches resulting therefrom, such as the necessity of recognizing the Creator and many other studies.

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