سورة الحديد

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: "My Lord took me on the night journey (Miraj), and He revealed to me from behind the veil and screen what He revealed, and He spoke with me. Among the things He said to me was: 'O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! Ali (peace be upon him) is the First, Ali (peace be upon him) is the Last, the Ascendant and the Hidden, and he is Knower of all things.' The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: 'O my Lord! Are You not the One who possesses such attributes?' Allah said: 'O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! I am Allah, there is no god but Me... O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! Indeed, I am Allah, there is no god but Me, I am the First and there is nothing before Me, and I am the Last and there is nothing after Me, I am the Ascendant and there is nothing more manifest than Me, and I am the Hidden and there is nothing more concealed than Me, and I am Allah, there is no god but Me, and I am Knower of all things. O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! Ali (peace be upon him) is the First — the first among the Imams (peace be upon them) to accept My covenant. O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! Ali (peace be upon him) is the Last — the last among the Imams (peace be upon them) whose soul I shall take, and he is the creature (dabbah) who [on the eve of the Resurrection] will speak with the people. O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! Ali (peace be upon him) is the Ascendant [meaning] I shall disclose to him everything that I have entrusted to you, and you have no right to hide anything of it from him. O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! Ali (peace be upon him) is the Hidden [meaning] the secret of Mine which I confided to you as a mystery, I have concealed with him; so there is no secret between Me and you which I would wish to withhold from Ali (peace be upon him). I have not created any lawful (halal) or forbidden (haram) thing except that Ali (peace be upon him) is aware of it.'"

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): هُوَ الأَوَّلُ [He is the First] means before every thing, and الآخِرُ [the Last] means He remains after every thing.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): His being precedes [all] times, His existence precedes non-existence, and His eternity precedes the beginning; He is manifest, not by the interpretation of direct contact that He should meet face to face with anyone.

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): Abu Zumayl said: I asked Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him) about the doubts that a person feels in his breast. He replied: "No one has been saved from that, and Allah has revealed: فَإِنْ کُنْتَ فِی شَکٍّ [So if you are in doubt]; if you were in doubt, whenever you feel such a thing, say: هُوَ الْأَوَّلُ وَ الْآخِرُ وَ الظَّاهِرُ وَ الْبَاطِنُ وَ هُوَ بِکُلِّ شَیْءٍ عَلِیمٌ [He is the First and the Last and the Ascendant and the Hidden, and He is the Knower of all things]."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): O believers and Muslims, Allah the Mighty and Majestic has praised and lauded Himself and said that He is the First, meaning before every thing, and the Last, meaning after every thing, and He is Manifest over every thing and Hidden within every thing, and His knowledge concerning every thing is equal (apparently the meaning is that Allah's knowledge of all things, of their outward and inward, is equal, and His knowledge of each individual does not differ in terms of less or more). Then he said: Ask me now, before you lose me. I am the First and I am the Last... I am the First and the Last and the Manifest and the Hidden and the Knower and Aware of every thing.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): One day the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) was seated in the mosque and a group of his companions were with him. They said to him: "O Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), speak to us of something." He said: "Woe to you! My speech is hard and [bearing it] is difficult, and none understand it except the learned." They said: "You must speak to us." The Imam (peace be upon him) said: "Come with me," and he entered the house and then said: ... I am the First and the Last and the Manifest and the Hidden. (On hearing these words) the companions of the Imam became angry and said: "Ali (peace be upon him) has become an unbeliever," and they rose [to leave]. Ali (peace be upon him) addressed the door of the house saying: "Prevent them from leaving." So the door blocked them from going. The Imam said: "Did I not tell you that my speech is hard and [bearing it] is difficult, and none understand it except the learned? Come, so that I may explain [what I said] to you. As for my saying, 'I am the one who overcame and prevailed,' [what I mean is that] I am the one who overcame you with this sword and prevailed over you until you believed in Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him and his family). As for my saying, 'I am the First,' [what I mean is that] I am the first person who believed in Allah and became a Muslim. As for my saying, 'I am the Last,' [what I mean is that] I am the last person who covered [the pure body of] the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) with his shirt and buried him. As for my saying, 'I am the Manifest and the Hidden,' (what I mean is that) the knowledge of the manifest and the hidden is in my possession." Those people said: "You have removed our grief; may Allah remove your grief as well."

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Ali (peace be upon him) addressed the sun and said: "السلام علیک یا خلق الله الجدید [Peace be upon you, O new creation of Allah]." At that moment Allah the Exalted made the sun speak, and it said in eloquent Arabic: Peace be upon you, O brother and successor of the Messenger of Allah; I bear witness that you are the First and the Last and the Manifest and the Hidden, and that you are the servant of Allah and the true brother of His Messenger... They said: "Yes, O Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family)! For you yourself informed us in the Book that was revealed to you that the First and the Last and the Manifest and the Hidden is Allah." The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: "Woe to you! How do you know what the meaning of the sun's words is? What the sun meant by 'إنّک الأوّل [Indeed you are the First]' is that it bore witness that Ali is the first of the men who believed in the Messenger of Allah, and Khadija is the first of the women who believed in the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family). And what it meant by 'الآخِر [the Last]' is that Ali is the last of the successors, since I am the Seal of the Prophets. And what it meant by 'الظاهر [the Manifest]' is that he has come to know all the knowledge that Allah has bestowed upon me. And apart from me, this knowledge has been given to none but Ali, and he in turn will pass it on to whichever of his sons he wishes. And what it meant by 'الباطن [the Hidden]' is that, by Allah, he is aware of the knowledge of the first and the last, as well as of all the Books that were revealed to the Prophets. And what Allah has taught me of knowledge is hidden from you, and the merit He has given me He has not given to you. What is it that you deny?!" Then all of them said together: "O Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family)! We seek Allah's forgiveness. Had we known what you know, we would never have turned away from acknowledging your rank and that of Ali. You too, seek forgiveness from Allah for us." Then Allah revealed the verse: سَواءٌ عَلَیهِم أَستَغفَرتَ لَهُم أَم لَم تَستَغفِر لَهُم لَن یَغفِرَ اللهُ لَهُم إنَّ اللهَ لا یَهدی القَومَ الفاسِقِینَ [It is alike to them whether you ask forgiveness for them or do not ask forgiveness for them; Allah will never forgive them; indeed, Allah does not guide the transgressing people].

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Sulaym ibn Qays al-Hilali said: I heard Abu Dharr saying: I saw my master Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) one night saying to Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him): Tomorrow, go to the mountains of Baqi and stand on a high place on the ground. When the sun rises, greet it... He said: "Peace be upon you, O First, and O Last, and O Manifest, and O Hidden, and O One who is Knowing of all things!" When Abu Bakr, Umar, the Muhajirun and the Ansar heard the speech of the sun, they lost consciousness. They came to after several hours, while Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) had left that place. They all presented themselves before the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) and said: You say that Ali is a human being like us. The sun addressed him with words with which Allah has addressed Himself!! The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: "What did you hear from it?" They said: We heard the sun saying: "Peace be upon you, O First!" He said: "It spoke truly; he is the first who believed in me." They said: "We heard the sun saying: 'O Last!'" He said: "It spoke truly; he is the last one to renew his meeting with me. He will wash me, shroud me, and place me in my grave." They said: "We heard the sun saying: 'O Manifest!'" He said: "It spoke truly; all my knowledge has been made manifest to him." They said: "We heard the sun saying: 'O Hidden!'" He said: "It spoke truly. All my secrets are within him." They said: We heard the sun saying: "O One who is Knowing of all things!" He said: "It spoke truly. He is the one who knows the halal and the haram, the obligatory and the recommended acts, and whatever is of this kind." They all rose and said: "Muhammad has cast us into darkness!!" And then they went out of the door of the mosque.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) — Jabir ibn Abdullah said: I met Ammar in one of the alleys of Madina and asked him about the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family). He told me that the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) was in the mosque among a group of his people. When he had prayed the morning prayer, he came towards us. We were sitting together when the sun rose. At that moment Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him) came in upon us. The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) rose to meet him, kissed him between his eyes, and seated him beside himself in such a way that their knees touched one another. Then he said: "O Ali! Rise and speak to the sun, for it will speak to you." The people rose and were saying: "Do you really believe that the sun speaks with Ali?" Some of them said: "He is forever exalting his lowly cousin and glorifying his name." Then Ali (peace be upon him) went out and said to the sun: "O creature of Allah! How are you?" The sun replied: "I am well, O brother of the Messenger of Allah! O First and O Last! O Manifest and O Hidden! O One who is Knower of all things." Ali (peace be upon him) returned to the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family). The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) smiled and said: "O Ali! Will you tell me or shall I tell you?" He said: "It is better that they hear it from your tongue, O Messenger of Allah!" The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: "The sun's words to you were thus: 'O First' — because you are the first who believed in Allah." He said: "'O Last' — because you are the last who will look upon me with your eye at the time of my washing." He said: "'O Manifest' — because you are the first who will become acquainted with the hidden things of my secret." And he said: "'O Hidden' — because you are the only one who knows the inward of my knowledge." And he said: "You are the Knower of everything, because Allah has not sent down any knowledge of the lawful and the unlawful, the obligations and the rulings, the revelation (tanzil) and the interpretation (tafsir), the abrogating and the abrogated, the muhkam (clear) and the mutashabih (ambiguous), and the difficult, without you being knowledgeable of it. Were it not that a group of my ummah would say about you what the Christians said about Isa (peace be upon him), I would have said something about you such that you would not pass by any group without their taking the dust from beneath your feet to seek healing by it." Jabir said: When Ammar (may Allah have mercy on him) finished his hadith, Salman (may Allah have mercy on him) approached. Ammar (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "This Salman (may Allah have mercy on him) was with us." And Salman (may Allah have mercy on him) also narrated it to me just as Ammar (may Allah have mercy on him) had narrated it.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): Praise and glory befit the Allah who was One in His priority, and in His eternity, girded Himself with the greatness of divinity and lordship, and He is the Enduring Lord, eternal from the beginning and everlasting forever.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): He was the First without any 'how', and He shall be the Last without any 'where' — 'where' meaning without any place about which the question can be asked.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Ibn Abi Ya'fur said: I asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) about the word of Allah the Mighty and Majestic هُوَ الْأَوَّلُ وَ الْآخِرُ وَ الظَّاهِرُ وَ الْبَاطِنُ وَ هُوَ بِکُلِّ شَیْءٍ عَلِیمٌ [He is the First and the Last and the Ascendant and the Hidden, and He is Cognizant of all things], and I said: "We have understood what is meant by the First, but explain to us the meaning of the Last." He said: "Everything perishes, or changes, or is subject to change and passing away, or shifts from one colour to another and from one form to another, from one attribute to another, and from increase to decrease — except the Lord of the worlds. He is ever in a single state; He alone is the First before every thing. He alone is the Last, without passing away. His attributes and names do not change, while the attributes and names of what is other than Him do change — like the human being, who for a time is dust, and at another time flesh and blood, and at another time a corpse and decayed bones; or like the busr (unripe date), which is at one time balah (early unripe), and at one time busr, and at one time rutab (ripe), and at one time tamr (dried date). Thus its attributes and names change, whereas Allah the Mighty and Majestic is contrary to that."

Imam Rida (peace be upon him): Ali ibn Muhammad narrated from Imam Rida (peace be upon him): May Allah teach you! Know that Allah is Qadim (pre-eternal) — meaning He has existed from eternity — and being pre-eternal is an attribute that makes the rational person understand that nothing was before Him, and in His continuance nothing will be with Him or accompany Him. By the acknowledgement of the generality and the miracle of the attribute, it becomes clear to us that nothing was before Allah, and in His continuance nothing will be alongside Him, and the speech of those who suppose that anything was before Him or alongside Him is invalidated. For if something had been alongside Him, then Allah could not be its creator, because that thing would have always been with Allah from eternity — so how can Allah be the creator of something that has always been with Him? And if that thing had been before Allah, then that thing would be the beginning, not this one (Allah), and it would be more fitting for that First to be the creator of this second.

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): هُوَ الْأَوَّلُ [He is the First] means before every thing, and وَ الْآخِرُ [and the Last] means He remains after every thing.

Imam Jawad (peace be upon him): Ali ibn Mahziyar said: Imam Jawad (peace be upon him) had written to a man in his own hand, and I read it — a supplication he wrote for him to recite: O You who were before every thing, then created every thing, then remains while every thing ceases and perishes.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): If it is said "He was," what is meant is the pre-eternity of His existence [not a report of past time]; and if it is said "He shall ever be," what is meant is the negation of absolute non-existence from Him [not a report of His future].

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): He is the First, meaning He was before everything without having a beginning; and He is the Last, meaning He will be after [the perishing and annihilation of] everything without having an end. So He is a Being who has always existed and will always remain everlasting. And He is the Manifest, meaning He is dominant and prevailing over everything, and everything is lower than Him. And He is the Hidden, meaning He knows everything, and no one is more knowing than Him.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Maymun al-Ban said: Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) was asked about al-Awwal and al-Akhir, and he said: First means there was no first before Him, and no beginning preceded Him. Last does not mean an end of the kind understood as an attribute of created beings; rather it means eternal. He is a First and Last who has always been and always is, without beginning or end; origination does not befall Him, and He does not change from one state to another; He is the Creator of everything.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Praise be to Allah who existed before existence was. "Being" cannot describe His existence; rather He was First, existing, whom no bringer-into-being brought into being — exalted be His praise — rather He brought things into being before their being, and they came to be as He brought them into being. He knew what was and what is to be. He was when there was nothing, and no speaker uttered anything of Him; so He was when there was no "was."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him and his family): [Part of the debate of the Indian physician with Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him)]: The Indian physician said: "... Tell me! How did you say: Allah is the First and the Last, and He is aware of the finest of matters and knowing of all things, and words like this?" I (Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him)) said: "Allah is the First without being described by any modality or manner, and He is the Last without having any end. He has no likeness; He created the creatures and things without any pre-existing matter and without any resemblance or likeness, without needing practice or becoming weary and tired, and without needing to think, and without this creation of His being described by any manner or attribute; just as He Himself is not described by modality or manner; rather, this attribution of modality and manner pertains to the creatures [and they are the ones who have modality and attribute], because Allah is the First who has no beginning, no resemblance, no likeness, no opposite and no equal; He is not perceived by the eye and not known by touch; and He is not comprehended except through [seeing] His creation." The Indian physician said: "Describe for me the power and might of Allah." I said: "Our Lord has been named the Strong and Powerful because of the great and mighty creation He has done. He is the One who created the like of the earth together with its mountains, seas, sands, trees, and the moving creatures — namely humans and animals — and [also because of] the creation of the changing of the winds and the clouds that are subjugated between the sky and the earth and have become heavy with abundant water, and the creation of the sun and the moon and their greatness and the greatness of their light, which the eyes cannot grasp nor reach the utmost limit of their light; and the creation of the stars floating [in space] and the rotation of the planets in their orbits and the thickness of the sky and the greatness of the creatures who are in the sky [namely the angels]."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): The First is before every thing and He has no before, and the Last is after every thing and He has no after — until he said: His firstness has no end, and His lastness has no limit or ultimate boundary.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): He is the First, so He has no beginning that anything could be before Him, and He is the Last, so He has no reference-point that anything could be after Him.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Praise be to Allah, who is the First — so nothing is before Him — and the Last — so nothing exists after Him.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): His being First has no beginning, and His being everlasting has no end or termination.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): He shall never perish. He has always been from the beginning, before all things and without beginning, and He is after all things without end.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): He is before every thing that is regarded as the first, and after every thing that is counted as the last. Since there is nothing before Him, He must have no beginning; and since there is nothing after Him, He must have no end.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): One of the Jewish scholars came before Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) and said: "O Amir al-Mu'minin, since when has your Lord been?" He said to him: "May your mother mourn you! When was He not, that it should be asked when He was? My Lord was before the before that has no before, and He is until the eternity that has no after; here there is no limit nor any end; no limit has a way to Him, and He is the end of every end." He said: "O Amir al-Mu'minin, are you a prophet?" He said: "Woe to you, I am nothing but a servant from the servants of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) was asked: Where was our Lord before He created any sky or earth? He said: "'Where' is a question about place, and Allah was, and there was no place."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Zurarah said: I said to Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): "Was Allah, and was there nothing?" He said: "Yes, He was, and there was nothing." I said: "Then where was He?" The Imam had been reclining; he sat up straight and said: "O Zurarah, you have spoken an absurdity, for you asked about place where there is no place."

Imam Jawad (peace be upon him): Muhammad ibn Abi Abdullah has narrated in a marfu' form from Abu Hashim al-Ja'fari: I was in the presence of Imam Jawad (peace be upon him) when a man asked him and said: 'Inform me about the Lord of the worlds, Blessed and Exalted — He has many names and attributes in His Book which is the Quran; are those names and attributes His very self?' The Imam (peace be upon him) said: 'This statement has two aspects. If you are saying that these are Him — meaning that Allah possesses number and multiplicity — then Allah is far above that. And if you are saying that these attributes and names have always existed, this expression admits of two meanings. If you say that these have always been with Him in His knowledge and that He was worthy of them, then yes. But if you are saying that the form of these [names], the count of their letters, and the breaking up of their letters has always existed — ma'adh Allah [Allah forbid] that anything else should have existed alongside Allah. Rather, Allah existed and there was no creation, then He created them and made His names and attributes a means between Himself and His creation, so that through them they might supplicate at His threshold and worship Him, and so that these might be His remembrance (dhikr). Allah existed and there was no remembrance, and the One who is remembered by these remembrances is that same Ancient Allah who has always existed. The names and attributes are created, along with the meanings which are their source; and what is intended by all of them is that Allah for whom neither difference nor conjunction is fitting. Separation and conjunction belong to what is divisible, so Allah is not described with conjunction, nor with plenty and paucity. Rather He is Ancient in His essence, because whatever is other than the One Allah is divisible, and Allah is One who is neither divisible nor is plenty and paucity conceived in His essence. And everything that is divisible, or in which plenty and paucity is conceived, is a created thing that indicates its Creator. So your saying that Allah is Powerful (Qadir) is a report that nothing renders Him incapable — by this word you have negated incapacity from Him and have set incapacity apart from Him. Likewise your saying that He is Knowing ('Alim) — by this word you have negated ignorance from Him and set ignorance apart from Him. And when Allah causes all things to perish, He causes the form, the pronunciation, and the segmentation of the letters also to perish; but the One who has always existed remains, forever Knowing.'

Imam Kazim (peace be upon him): Allah is the First before whom there was nothing, and the Last after whom there is nothing.

Imam Hasan (peace be upon him): Praise be to Allah, who had no known first, no finite last, no perceivable before, and no bounded after; no term to which "until" could be applied, no person that could be divided, no varying attribute that could reach an end. So neither intellects and their imaginings, nor thoughts and their passing notions, nor pure minds and their conceptions can grasp His attribute so as to say when He was, from what He began, over what He is manifest, or in what He is hidden.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): The Imam (peace be upon him) had written in his own hand to a man, and I read it. In a supplication he had written that he should say: O You who were before every thing, then created every thing, then remain while every thing perishes and passes away.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Nothing was with Him — neither known nor unknown. Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, was, and there was no speaker, no willer, no mover, and no doer.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Indeed Allah, Blessed and Exalted, was, and there was nothing besides Him.

Imam Rida (peace be upon him): As for al-Zahir (the Manifest), the name is not because He has mounted upon things, sat upon their backs and settled upon their summits; rather it is because of His overpowering, His prevailing over things, and His power over them — just as when a man says, 'I prevailed over my enemies,' and 'Allah made me prevail over my adversary,' he reports of victory and dominance. Such is Allah's ẓuhūr (manifestness) over things. Another aspect is that He is manifest to whoever seeks Him, nothing is hidden from Him, and He is the Governor of all that He has created. So what manifest thing is more manifest and clearer than Allah, Blessed and Exalted? For wherever you turn, you see His creation; and if you only look at yourself, you find His traces in you — whereas al-zahir (the manifest) among us means the thing itself and its limits are clear. We share in the word, but we differ in meaning (verbal likeness only). And al-Batin (the Hidden) does not mean entering into the interior of things by penetrating them; rather it means that He encompasses things in knowledge, preservation and governance from within — as when the speaker says 'abṭantuhu,' meaning: I am informed of it and I know it.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Every manifest thing other than Him is hidden, and every hidden thing other than Him is not manifest.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): He is above, and there is nothing higher than Him. He is near, and there is nothing nearer than Him.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): He is manifest, but not through being seen with the eye; and He is hidden, but not in the sense of being subtle or fine.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): He is Manifest, and it cannot be said, "From what has He become manifest?" He is Hidden, and it cannot be said, "In what is He hidden?"

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): He who has perceived the inner nature of hidden affairs and whose knowledge has penetrated into them — let alone the manifest affairs. And in intellects He has the utmost manifestation through what is seen in His creation of the signs of [His] governance.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): He is aware of everything, but not through means; His knowledge is nothing other than His essence, and there is no intermediary between Him and the objects of His knowledge by which He would come to know the known.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Mansur ibn Hazim said: I asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): "Is it possible that today something comes into existence that yesterday was not in Allah's knowledge?" He (peace be upon him) said: "No; whoever says this, may Allah disgrace him." I said: "Tell me, is it not the case that whatever has been and whatever will be until the Day of Resurrection is all in Allah's knowledge?" He said: "Yes, it is so, and it was so before He created the creatures."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Abu Basir said: I heard Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) saying: Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, has always been our Lord, and knowledge was His essence when there was nothing to be known; hearing was His essence when there was nothing to be heard; sight was His essence when there was nothing to be seen; power was His essence when there was nothing subject to power. So when He brought all things into being and the objects of knowledge came to exist, His knowledge fell upon the known.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Aban ibn Uthman al-Ahmar said: I said to Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): "Inform me about Allah the Blessed and Exalted — has He always been Hearing, Seeing, Knowing and Powerful?" He said: "Yes." I said to him: "A man who claims to follow you, the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them), says: 'Allah has always been Hearing by means of hearing, Seeing by means of sight, Knowing by means of knowledge, and Powerful by means of power.'" The Imam (peace be upon him) became angry and said: "Whoever says that and holds it as his belief is a polytheist and has no share in following us. Allah the Blessed and Exalted is an Essence that is All-Knowing, Hearing, Seeing, and Powerful."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Allah existed and nothing existed besides Him, and He has always been Knowing of what He has brought into being and existence. So His knowledge of it before its being is like His knowledge of it after He brought it into being and caused it to exist.

Imam Kazim (peace be upon him): Ayyub ibn Nuh asked Imam Kazim (peace be upon him): "Did Allah the Mighty and Majestic know all things before He created all things and brought them into being, or did He not know that until He created them and willed to create them and bring them into being, and then came to know what He created at the moment He created it and what He brought into being at the moment He brought it into being?" The Imam (peace be upon him) wrote in his own hand: "Allah has always been Knowing of all things before He created the things, like His knowledge of them after He created all things."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Through knowledge He encompassed all things before their being, so His knowledge did not increase by their coming into being. His knowledge of all things before He brought them into being is like His knowledge after He brought them into being.

Imam Kazim (peace be upon him): [Allah, through knowledge,] knew all things before their being.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Mansur ibn Hazim said: I asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): "Is there anything today that was not in the knowledge of Allah the Mighty and Majestic?" He said: "No, rather it was in His knowledge before He created the heavens and the earth."

Imam Kazim (peace be upon him): The knowledge of Allah is not described with "where", nor is knowledge from Allah described with "how", nor is knowledge separated from Allah, nor is Allah separated from it, and there is no limit or bound between Allah and His knowledge.