Allusions and Subtleties

Justification of the Witnessing of Prophets and Imams

Sometimes it is said that the prophets and infallible Imams are witnesses to deeds, and God is likewise; however, these two attributes are in sequence with one another; that is, the infallible is the proximate witness (shahīd qarīb) and God is the distant witness (shahīd baʿīd), just as concerning human actions it is explained that his deeds are both the act of the servant (ʿabd) and the act of God; but the human is the proximate agent (fāʿil qarīb) and God is the distant agent (fāʿil baʿīd).

This statement is an intermediate justification (not a final one) and is incompatible with the exclusivity of perfections to God: the Qur’an attributes all perfections that it ascribes to other than God, yet elsewhere considers all of them to be exclusive to God. So if He is “the best of protectors”(337) and “the best of providers”(338) and “the best of devisers”,(339) it has come elsewhere that God is protector over all things: “Indeed my Lord is protector over all things”(340) and He alone is the provider: “Indeed it is Allah who is the All-provider, Powerful and Strong”(341) and the plotting of the faithless is futile “And the plotting of such people is bound to fail”,(342) “and Allah has their plotting in His control”(343) just as intercession is also accepted only by divine permission: “Who is it that may intercede with Him except with His permission?”(344) Likewise, if He says: “Yet all might belongs to Allah and His Messenger, and the faithful”,(345) elsewhere He says: “all might belongs entirely to Allah.”(346) Also, just as He says: “Hold on with power to what We have given you”,(347) “O John! Hold on with power to the Book!”,(348) “Prepare against them whatever you can of [military] power”,(349) elsewhere in the form of a comprehensive principle He says: “that power, altogether, belongs to Allah.”(350)

The mentioned exclusivities indicate that every possessor of perfection is a mirror-holder (āyina-dār) of the beauty (jamāl) and majesty (jalāl) of God; not that another also has perfection and God also has it; or that another is the proximate agent and God is the distant agent.

Concerning witnessing of deeds, the exclusivity (ḥaṣr) has this meaning: that no one except God is a witness (shahīd) and observer (raqīb) in an essential and inherent way. Despite such exclusivity, that famous and well-known answer is not a complete and final response. Rather, considering the mentioned cases, it must be said that other witnesses to deeds are manifestations (maẓhar) and signs (āya) and mirrors (āyina) of the witnessing and observing of God.

It might be said that the exclusivity of perfections to God is relative (iḍāfī), and with this we abandon the total exclusivity (ḥaṣr muṭlaq) of perfective attributes, which is the apparent meaning of the speech. However, it is necessary to note that accepting relative exclusivity is contrary to the apparent meaning, and the true meaning of the speech is that the verse expresses absolute exclusivity. Based on this, the sentence “You Yourself were watchful over them, and You are witness to all things” conveys real exclusivity. Therefore, being an observer: “he says no word but that there is a ready observer beside him” or being a witness by others: “And I was a witness to them so long as I was among them”(351) - all of these are from the perspective of being signs and manifestations of God’s witnessing and observing.