Recognition of Imam Part III - Key 9 Measure of Everything
Key 9 Measure of Everything
Tags: Universe
In verse (13:8), it is said: “And everything with Him is in a measure.”
This universal law means that although certain things of time and space, such as time and the universe appear unlimited and unending to humankind, but with God everything is limited and in a fixed measure. Although modern scientists think that this universe, in which there are innumerable worlds of planets and stars, is unbounded and limitless, the above-mentioned universal law says that this great universe too, despite its greatness and vastness, is according to a fixed measure of Divine law and similarly time too, despite its unrestricted duration, is in a fixed measure.
Thus, if a wise person studies this book with insight, every universal law will show that all those universal laws which are mentioned here demonstrate each other's reality. Thus, they also corroborate the above-mentioned reality that everything with God is limited.
As mentioned in Key 1, God is powerful over everything. This means that God's power has surrounded everything and everything is confined within His power.
The same is true of His knowledge, with regard to which it is mentioned that everything is confined in the light of the manifest Imām.
If everything is in a limited measure with God, it should be known that this fact too is not outside the domain of the manifest Imām's light and circle of knowledge. For God, may He be exalted, has confined and encompassed everything in his holy personality.
Having known that everything is limited and in a fixed measure, it is also necessary to know that due to its rotation on the cycle of annihilation and survival or transformation and change, it is also correct to say that everything is infinite. For example, although day and night are definitely limited, yet the cycle of time that is formed by their rotation is infinite. In the same way, a greater circle than that of the rotation of day and night is formed by the rotation of the year; then there are the circles of the aeons, and ultimately there is the circle of annihilation and origination of the universe, which is endless. This leads to the conclusion that if everything is limited from one aspect, it is limitless from the other. The characteristic of Divine law is that it has all the qualities of beginning and beginningless and ending and endless.
There are several such verses in the wise Qur'ān, whose deep wisdoms show that everything, despite being in a limited measure, is limitless. The fact is that everything is in a pair, that is, everything has an opposite or a contrary, e.g., day and night, light and darkness, this world and the next world, corporeality and spirituality, existence and non-existence, etc. Then by the rotation of each pair, a cycle is formed such as the rotation of day and night and the recurrence of months and years. In the same way, the existence of the universe is a very long day and its nonexistence is a very long night, which also makes a cycle. That is, the existence and non-existence of the universe and the existents is a circle, which is the greatest of circles. It is due to the endless rotation of this circle that every limited thing becomes unlimited. God willing, we shall explain this further in Key 22.
| Chapter Index | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter |