Existence of God in the sayings of Imam Ja’far as- Sadiq(A.S.)

Compiled by Syed Zainul Abideen, Tehran, Iran
O God! Our Lord! Yours is all praise. You alone possess all power and firm authority.
Yours is all praise. You are the Most High, with Prestige and Grandeur in the heavens and the Grand Throne.
O our Lord! Yours is all praise, You are the Most Excellent and Self-Sufficient in Your knowledge, whereas every other possessor of Knowledge is in need of You.
O our Lord! Yours is all praise. O the revealer of Ayats and the Great Zikr.
O our Lord! So Yours is all praise for all that You have taught us of wisdom and the great manifest Quran.
Indeed cognizance of the Mighty & Majestic God provides: 1.Peace and amity in every fearful situation.
2. His companionship in solitude.
3. Light in darkness.
4. Strength for the weak and the meek.
5. Remedy for every malady.
Note: a) An Agnostic denies the possibility of cognizance of God’s Divine Self through perception or mental faculty but he believes in the existence of God. Majority of people are God seeking by human nature though they cannot see God, but they see God’s creativity in every creation although God is incomprehensible.
b) Gnosticism has many sects and some of these sects claim that they have seen God and some sects are quite misleading. God’s Divine Self is invisible for the eyes but visible for the eyes of the heart and mind in this world and the Hereafter. Ali (A.S) had seen God with eyes of the heart which is more reliable than the eyes which cannot see microbes and is deceived by mirages.
A true Gnostic believes that spiritual knowledge is above faith and that salvation is attained only by those whose intuition enables them to transcend matter.
c) An Atheist denies the existence of God because he lacks spiritual faculty
d) Polytheists believe in more than one God, they deify a number of creations instead of their Creator i.e. God. Some men like Buddha, Rama, Krishna, and some women like Radha, Lachmi are considered as gods. Cupid, Apollo, Satan, jinn, angels, imaginary idols and even some attributes of God are considered as gods.
The divine guides such as Prophet Abraham (A.S), prophet Mohammad (S.A) and Imam Ali (A.S) had broken a number of idols. They prohibited worship of sun, moon, stars and everything other than God.
God is the only One and Unique Creator of everything, but God Himself is not created by anyone, as He is the Ever existing, First, Primal, and Incomprehensible Existence. God created everything by His intention even He can create them again with exactly the same fingerprints and DNA after a person has died and converted to dust.

Existence of God
A Hindu physician came to Imam Ja’far al Sadiq (A.S) for discussion about God. He said that his five senses cannot witness God therefore he denied God.
The Imam said: “I witness God because of the same five senses therefore one of us is correct.”
The Imam asked him: “Don’t you fear the wrath and punishment of God for denying Him?”
The physician replied; “There is no God to fear from.”
The Imam said: “If my belief is correct, would you give up your faithlessness which deserves severe punishment from God?”
The physician replied: “Certainly I would”.
The Imam asked him: “which one of us is more precautious and near the truth to avoid God’s wrath or punishment?”
The Hindu replied: “Of course you are more precautious, but your belief in God has no proof, whereas I am certain in my belief as I do not feel the presence of God.”
The Imam said: “You have denied God because of inability of your five senses, whereas I affirm the presence of God with this inability of the same five senses.”
The Hindu asked: “How is it that inability to comprehend God by your senses leads to the proof of God’s existence?”
The Imam said: “Everything that combines with another thing possesses a body but God does not possess a body, and whatever the eye perceives or the senses feel is not God. God should not be likened to the creations and basically human senses can never feel the presence of God.
The Imam then asked him: “Have you travelled in the skies or seen every place on the earth?” The Hindu said: “No I have not” The Imam asked: “Well then how do you deny the presence of God when you have not searched every place in space?”
The Hindu said: “I do not know whether or not God is present in the places which I have not visited.”
The Imam said: “Now your denial has changed to suspicion and I hope your suspicion will change to acceptance of the existence of God. The Hindu said: “I suspect all that I cannot encompass or grasp with my senses, so how is certitude acquired?”
The Imam said: “Certitude may be obtained with this myrobalan which is in your hand. Do you see its effectiveness as a medicine, as its effectiveness is not perceptible? How did the first tree of myrobalan came into existence? Tell me whether this myrobalan had come into existence by itself or its tree had germinated from its seed and the soil, sunlight, water and air were provided by someone else (God) for its growth into a tree?”
The Hindu said: “I do not say that all conditions for survival of this tree have been provided by itself.”
The Imam said: “Your suspicion that everything can be known by five senses is incorrect. It is intellect that comprehends, commands or prohibits and specifies benefits or harms of a thing.”
The Hindu said: “I do not believe that intellect without five senses can comprehend anything.”
The Imam said: “While sleeping your eyes are closed and your senses obviously do not work, but in dreams you see, hear, eat , drink , laugh, wander around cities and speak to your friends and relatives who are dead or alive. Tell me which of your senses are conscious of all these things in your dream?
The Hindu said: “I do not know which sense is conscious of those things, as a person in sleep is like the dead who can neither hear nor see.”
The Imam said: “Now you are approaching the truth. Is it not worthy that your intellect should confess whether awake or asleep, your heart or intellect comprehends everything and God has blessed you this internal sense which perceives significance and realities.” The Hindu said: “Now there is no way out for me except confession.”
The Imam said: “Now it is worthy of your intellect and wisdom to bear witness that God the All Knowing has created everything with His Creative Ability, knowledge and organized planning.
The Hindu physician said: “I bear witness that only God is the Creator of this universe and everything in it. Your arguments were very firm and my intellect also confirms the truth.
Note: An atheist was convinced by Imam Sadiq (A.S) regarding God’s existence by narrating about creation of a peacock with such beautiful fluorescent feathers. He said a peacock has not come to existence by itsef but God has created it by saying; be and it came to existence immediately as intended by God. Its egg also contains yellow and colorless liquids which is miraculously hatched a peacock.
Note: Majority of Hindus are idol worshippers, polytheists and atheists. Some of them believe in three gods, Brahma as the creator, Vishnu as the protector and Shiva as the destroyer. Some Hindus believe that the king Rama was a god, who died and was born again as Krishna, who also died and they believe that he will be born again as Ramakrishna. Statues of these men Rama & Krishna are worshipped as gods. Rama’s wife named Sita was taken to the island Ceylon (Srilanka) by Ravana who is also worshipped as a god by some Hindus. Some Hindus worship Kali as a god with many heads. Some Hindus worship gods with a number of hands. They also worship a god named Gunpati with the head of an elephant; Some Hindus worship Lachmi as goddess of wealth. Thus Hindus worship different gods and they are polytheists.
The real God who had sent His messengers & prophets all over the world for guidance is mentioned in the book ‘Upanishads’ wherein the right conception of God is perceptible with some mutilations with the passage of time.
India was invaded by Aryans who brought polytheism with them and they drove the Dravidians to the south of India. Next India was invaded by Moghuls and Muslims, who ruled India for a long time and the official language was Persian Muslims did not preach Islam as there is no compulsion in religion. Next India was invaded by English men and the English language was taught in several places. After the Second World War Mahatma Gandhi with his nonviolence movement liberated India from the British rule, and he accepted East and West Pakistan to be separated from India as Muslims were in majority there, so India is now an independent country with polytheism as their religion. Thus Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews all live in India but now the Hindus are in majority.
A country survives with polytheism, Atheism, communism and so on but it cannot survive with tyranny. So the promised savior of God is awaited by all good people of the world to help him establish the universal kingdom justice of God.