Al-Hayy
Al-Ḥayy (Arabic: الحَیّ, lit: The Ever-Living) is one of the Names[1] and Essential Attributes of God.[2] Shi'a theologians have devoted specific sections to the concept of Divine Life in their theological treatises and discussions regarding divine attributes.[3]
The term "al-Ḥayy" appears in the Qur'an three times paired with "al-Qayyūm"[4] and twice independently in reference to God.[5] In traditions, "al-Ḥayy" is enumerated both as one of the Divine Names[6] and as one of the Divine Attributes.[7] A narration from Imam al-Baqir (a) describes life as an eternal, non-contingent attribute of God.[8] Furthermore, certain traditions identify the name "al-Ḥayy," when conjoined with "al-Qayyūm," as the instance of the Greatest Name of God.[9]
Al-Raghib al-Isfahani defines God's life as a form of existence to which the concept of death is inapplicable.[10] Similarly, Mulla Sadra interprets divine life as the capacity to perform actions characteristic of living beings, specifically those predicated on knowledge, power, and free will.[11]
According to Ibn Maytham al-Bahrani (a 7th/13th-century Shi'a theologian), there is a consensus among Shi'a thinkers that God is a living entity.[12] The primary arguments advanced by Shi'a scholars to demonstrate the life of God are twofold: First, God is a Being who is All-Knowing and All-Powerful, and undoubtedly, any omniscient and omnipotent entity must possess life.[13] Second, God is the Creator of life, and the Creator of a quality cannot be devoid of that quality himself.[14]
Notes
- ↑ Bayhaqī, al-Asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt, p. 43.
- ↑ Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Āmūzish-i ʿaqāʾid, p. 74.
- ↑ Ṣadūq, al-Iʿtiqādāt, p. 27; Narāqī, Jāmiʿ al-afkār wa nāqid al-anẓār, vol. 3, p. 352.
- ↑ Qur'an 2:255; Qur'an 3:2; Qur'an 20:111.
- ↑ Qur'an 25:58; Qur'an 40:65.
- ↑ Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 1, p. 112.
- ↑ Ṣadūq, al-Tawḥīd, pp. 172-173.
- ↑ Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 1, pp. 88-89.
- ↑ Ṭabrisī, Majmaʿ al-bayān, vol. 2, p. 696.
- ↑ Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, al-Mufradāt, p. 269.
- ↑ Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, al-Ḥikma al-mutaʿāliya, vol. 6, p. 417.
- ↑ Ibn Maytham, Qawāʿid al-marām, p. 87.
- ↑ Ḥillī, Kashf al-murād, p. 287; Fāḍil al-Miqdād, al-Lawāmiʿ al-ilāhiyya, p. 200.
- ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Payām-i Qurʾān, vol. 4, p. 228.
References
- Bayhaqī, Abū Bakr al-. Al-Asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt. Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1417 AH.
- Kulaynī, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-. Al-Kāfī. Tehran: Islāmiyya, 1362 SH.
- Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad al-. Al-Mufradāt fī gharīb al-Qurʾān. Damascus - Beirut: Dār al-ʿIlm - al-Dār al-Shāmiyya, 1412 AH.
- Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. Al-Iʿtiqādāt. Qom: al-Muʾtamar al-ʿĀlamī li-l-Shaykh al-Mufīd, 1414 AH.
- Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. Al-Tawḥīd. Qom: Muʾassasa-yi Nashr-i Islāmī, 1398 AH.
- Ṭabrisī, Faḍl b. al-Ḥasan al-. Majmaʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Tehran: Nasir Khusraw, 1372 SH.
- ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī, Ḥasan b. Yūsuf al-. Kashf al-murād fī sharḥ Tajrīd al-iʿtiqād. Qom: Muʾassasa-yi Nashr-i Islāmī, 1413 AH.
- Fāḍil al-Miqdād, Miqdād b. ʿAbd Allāh. 'A'l-Lawāmiʿ al-ilāhiyya fī l-mabāḥith al-kalāmiyya. Qom: Muʾassasa-yi Nashr-i Islāmī, 1422 AH.
- Ibn Maytham, Maytham b. ʿAlī. Qawāʿid al-marām fī ʿilm al-kalām. Qom: Library of Ayatollah Mar'ashi Najafi, 1406 AH.
- Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir. Payām-i Qurʾān. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 1386 SH.
- Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Muḥammad Taqī. Āmūzish-i ʿaqāʾid. Tehran: Markaz-i Chāp wa Nashr-i Sāzimān-i Tablīghāt-i Islāmī, 1384 SH.
- Narāqī, Muḥammad Mahdī al-. Jāmiʿ al-afkār wa nāqid al-anẓār. Tehran: Hikmat, 1423 AH.
- Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm. Al-Ḥikma al-mutaʿāliya fī l-asfār al-ʿaqliyya al-arbaʿa. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1981.