Semantic Explanation of God’s Meeting on the Combined View of Allamah Tabatabaie

Alizamani, Amir Abbas; Jozani Kohan, Mohammad Ali

doi:10.30473/pms.2020.46158.1700

Document Type : Scientific Research

Authors

¹ Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy of Religion, University of Tehran, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Iran (Corresponding Author)

² Ph.D. in Islamic Philosophy and Theology, University of Tehran, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.30473/pms.2020.46158.1700

Abstract

One of the most fundamental questions of humans is the problem of seeing God. Because after asking about the reason of human creation and realizing the answer that leads to the existence of creator, one would ask is it possible to see God? And if it is, how and when would this seeing takes place? Therefore, the historical roots of this question should be retrieved in the early apprehension of human being. In the world of Islamic thought system, variety of different views have been presented: some believe in the possibility of seeing God with eyes and some other believe in transubstantiation of it and have disregarded the apparent of theological texts, vindicating the verses of the Holy Quran and Hadith leading to permit the possibility of seeing the Almighty God. Another group also pointing to the apparent of the aforementioned verses and narrations, have claimed that seeing God is not only limited to visualization by eyes, and have proven other methods and meanings of seeing. On the other hand, the science of Islamic belief system is studied in four fields: exegesis, theology, philosophy, and mysticism. Since all of these four sciences have tried to answer the question of seeing God, this question can be labeled as a point where all these sciences meet. Hence, the answer of a thinker like Allamah Tabatabaie, a true expert in all these fields, would be the best and the most complete of all answers. Consequentially this study will exegetically, theologically, philosophically, and mystically explain the concept of seeing God based on the views of Allamah Tabatabaie. And finally we will come to the conclusion that necessarily the most complete and precise answer is the result of combination of all these approaches.

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