Pillars of Tawhid
Pillars of Tawhid in the mystical view are the exalting of God the Almighty in the Uniqueness of Actions and tahmid (praise), Uniqueness of Attributes and tahlil, Uniqueness of Essence and takbir, and the perfection of tawhid is in tasbih (glorification). Imam Khomeini also in his works explains and expounds the pillars of tawhid in four pillars: tahmid, tahlil, takbir, and tasbih.
Importance and Position of the Pillars of Tawhid
Tawhid in philosophical and mystical terminology means the oneness and uniqueness of God in Essence, Attributes, and Actions, which possesses exalting pillars and foundations.[1] In the religion of Islam, the issue of tawhid and its pillars is among the most important axes of the principles of beliefs, and it enjoys a prominent and distinguished position in religious culture. The People of Knowledge in their works, based on cognitive and intuitive knowledge and with regard to the foundations of manifestation and hiddenness and the exalting of Attributes and Actions of the Truth, have analyzed the pillars of tawhid.[2] Imam Khomeini has also endeavored in his works to analyze and examine tawhid and its pillars by using the Qur'an, Sunnah, and demonstration, and to express the pillars of tawhid in four pillars: tahmid, tahlil, takbir, and tasbih.[3]
The First Pillar Tahmid
Tahmid: means referring all praises and encomiums to the Holy Divine Essence and negating the worthiness of other-than-God in the attachment of praise. In this tawhid and tahmid, the wayfarer sees all detailed bestowals and gifts annihilated in a single absolute bestowal and attributes them all to the Will of God the Almighty; thus, in the world of existence, there is neither a possessor of beauty nor a doer of beautiful deeds to be praised because of these two attributes; for all good actions, righteous deeds, and all bounties and blessings are from God the Glorified, and from this aspect, He alone is worthy of praise and encomium.
The wayfarer possessing intuition observes at this stage that the bestowals, gifts, and blessings which have emerged in the form of detailed multiplicity are all the manifestation and absolute bestowal of the Divine Grace; therefore, there is no absolute beautiful being or doer of beautiful deeds in the world except God, so He is worthy of praise and tahmid. The negation of power and strength from other-than-God in "hawqala" confirms this matter.
According to Imam Khomeini, this pillar of tahmid possesses three types: Uniqueness of Actions, Attributes, and Uniqueness of Essence, and since the absolute Divine Identity is manifest despite being hidden, and hidden despite being manifest, on this basis, in each of these three threefold tawhids, the other two tawhids are veiled and hidden, and in each exaltation, the other two exaltations are also hidden. Thus, each of the Names follows the degree that has gained dominance and is manifest; for instance, the Name "the Ruler" in tahmid, due to its operational dominance, implies the Uniqueness of Actions; so tahmid is the station of the Uniqueness of Actions, and the Uniqueness of Actions is the manifest degree of tahmid, while its other two degrees, namely the Uniqueness of Attributes and the manifest degree of Essence, are concealed and hidden within it.[4]
The Second Pillar Tahlil
Tahlil in religious and mystical terminology means acknowledging the oneness and the annihilation of all perfections and attributes in the Essence of the Truth. The gnostics and Sufis have regarded the dhikr of tahlil as the word of tawhid and ethics. The People of Knowledge believe that the word of tahlil is organized in two domains: "la ilah" (there is no god), meaning the elimination of dispersion, and "illa Allah" (except God), meaning the building of concentration; therefore, all worshipful and behavioral rulings and etiquettes are for the elevation of the word "la ilah illa Allah" so that the wayfarer, by repeatedly performing it, trains the heart to turn toward God the Glorified.[5]
Imam Khomeini also, in expressing the pillar of tahlil and its reality, believes that tahlil is the station of the Uniqueness of Attributes and the annihilation of all perfections and attributes of creatures in the Attribute and Perfection of God the Almighty; meaning that every beauty, perfection, goodness, and splendor must be seen as the manifestation of beauty and perfection and from the manifestations of God the Almighty. In truth, all these attributes and perfections are nothing more than mirrors that reflect the Attributes of the Divine Presence in different loci. In Imam Khomeini's view, the secret that tahlil occurs in the station of the Uniqueness of Attributes is that in tahlil, the negation of divinity from other-than-God the Almighty takes place; therefore, tahlil and the word "la ilah illa Allah" in this station mean that no perfection exists in others in such a way that it encompasses all perfections and attributes, but rather all perfections and attributes exist in the comprehensive Name, Allah.[6] According to Imam Khomeini, the station of tahlil is the result of the station of tahmid; because if tahmid is confined to the Holy Essence, servitude also manifests and emerges in that station; in this case, all servitudes that are from creation for creation are negated in that station; then, when the wayfarer to God considers all praises confined to God the Almighty, servitude also becomes confined to God the Almighty.[7]
The Third Pillar Takbir
In expressing the reality of this pillar, Imam Khomeini believes that takbir is the station of the Uniqueness of Essence and the consumption of all egohoods and identities in the absolute reality of God the Almighty; because God is higher than can be described; since fundamentally no independent essence or other thing exists over against God the Glorified for that infinite Essence to be compared with it. In Imam Khomeini's view, the pillar of takbir, which is the station of the manifestation and emergence of the tawhid of Essence, in this pillar, with regard to the content of the Uniqueness of Essence, only one infinite Essence has existed; therefore, it must encompass all attributes and actions and contain them; hence, the Uniqueness of Attributes and Actions, as the fruit and necessity for the Uniqueness of Essence, are latent and hidden within it.[8]
The Fourth Pillar Tasbih
In expressing the reality of the fourth pillar, namely tasbih, Imam Khomeini believes that tasbih is a station where God the Almighty must be exalted from the threefold tawhid; because within them lies a kind of instability and multiplicity and a sort of attention to multiplicities and the observation of others, but in the pillar of tasbih, it is the station of exaltation and stability, and tawhid becomes complete and perfect through it. Although the other three pillars possess a tawhidi color and hue, a certain way of instability, changing of colors, and observing creationist aspects and multiplicity exists within them; in the pillar of tasbih, this instability is eliminated and, by bringing the gnostic to the station of stability and exaltation, makes his tawhid complete and perfect; because in the operational tawhid, the wayfarer sees all actions as the manifestation of His action, and the exaltation from this tawhid is that no action is seen for other-than-Him at all; in the Uniqueness of Attributes, he sees the consumption of Names and Attributes, which itself is somehow mixed with the color of others and seeing attributes, and its exaltation is not seeing any name or attribute of the Divine Names in the realm of reality. In the Uniqueness of Essence, all essences are annihilated in the Essence of the Truth, which somehow contains a certain way of instability and the viewing of multiplicities, because the annihilation of the essence of multiplicities will itself be a sort of attention to multiplicities; therefore, the exaltation in this station is that no other egohood or identity is observed except the absolute individual Identity of the Divine Presence. According to Imam Khomeini, another station named "twaghhul" exists which stands as the result of all these stations and tawhids, and that is that he does not see an action or an attribute even from God the Almighty, and completely negates multiplicity and witnesses pure unity and identity; because "the perfection of tawhid is the negation of attributes from Him",[9] the perfection of tawhid and its completion is by negating attributes from Him.[10]
Notes
- ↑ Jarjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, p. 31; Qayṣarī, Sharḥ Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, p. 392; Muṭahharī, Majmūʿa-yi āthār, vol. 2, p. 97.
- ↑ Āmulī, Jāmiʿ al-asrār wa-manbaʿ al-anwār, pp. 99-103; Ibn Munawwar, Asrār al-tawḥīd, p. 274; Tirmidhī, Ghawr al-umūr, p. 191; Nicholson, Taṣawwuf-i Islāmī, p. 23; Mullā Ṣadrā, al-Ḥikma al-mutaʿāliya, vol. 6, pp. 57-63; vol. 9, p. 231; Sabziwārī, Sharḥ-i man|ẓūma, vol. 5, p. 179; Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, vol. 2, p. 405, vol. 4, p. 89; Ashraf Imāmī, Muqāyasa-yi dīdگاهhā-yi ʿirfānī, pp. 80-84.
- ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Miṣbāḥ al-hidāya, pp. 79-80; Ādāb al-ṣalāt, pp. 171 and 258; Sharḥ-i chihil ḥadīth, p. 327; Taqrīrāt-i falsafa, vol. 1, pp. 82-84.
- ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Miṣbāḥ al-hidāya, pp. 79-80; Ādāb al-ṣalāt, p. 199; Yazdānpanāh, Furūgh-i maʿrifat, vol. 1, pp. 412-413.
- ↑ Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, vol. 2, p. 405; Tirmidhī, Ghawr al-umūr, p. 91; Ibn Munawwar, Asrār al-tawḥīd, p. 274; Mullā Ṣadrā, al-Ḥikma al-mutaʿāliya, vol. 9, p. 231; Faḍlī, ʿIlm-i sulūk, p. 234; Ashraf Imāmī, Muqāyasa-yi dīdگاهhā-yi ʿirfānī, pp. 80-81.
- ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Miṣbāḥ al-hidāya, pp. 79-80; Taqrīrāt-i falsafa, vol. 1, pp. 82-83.
- ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Ādāb al-ṣalāt, p. 372.
- ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Miṣbāḥ al-hidāya, pp. 79-80; Yazdānpanāh, Furūgh-i maʿrifat, vol. 2, pp. 415-416.
- ↑ Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 1, p. 140.
- ↑ Imām Khumaynī, Miṣbāḥ al-hidāya, p. 80; Ādāb al-ṣalāt, p. 278; Taqrīrāt-i falsafa, vol. 1, pp. 82-83.
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