The Creation by Christ from Two Perspectives: Wisdom and Knowledge

There is no doubt that the emergence of life, the attachment of spirit to clay, and the realization of the bird were by God’s permission. However, what is observed from the perspective of wisdom - meaning the system of cause and effect and the dependence of effect on cause - differs from what is found from the perspective of knowledge - meaning the unity of actions and the dependence of the effect on the Causer and the Creator and Destroyer of causes. The ruling of the system of cause and effect is that Christ (a.s.) created a bird by the Lord’s permission and made it fly. The ruling of the unity of actions is that Christ (a.s.) was permitted to breathe, but the bird’s coming to life was through the command “Be,” which in this case is referred to as God’s permission.(395) Perhaps this lofty matter can be referred, based on the unity of actions, to another matter whose common expression is: “You did not give life to the bird when you gave life, but rather God gave life.”