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unity. Nor does Philo speak of the Holy Spirit as a Hypostasis. Yet he
approached the conclusion that some kinds of plurality are consistent with
unity.
Some learned and thoughtful Muslim philosophers have been driven to infer
at least as much on this subject as Philo did. Probably what they have written
is due in part to deep thought, in part to their partial knowledge of the
Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Being too proud and perhaps too prejudiced
to accept this divine teaching with due humility and reverence, they have felt
compelled at any rate to admit that God's nature is not a mere
(محض) unit, but
contains within it some kind of plurality. This will be evident from the
following extracts from their books.
For example, Kashani, in his work entitled Technical Meanings
(اصطلاحات)
writes thus of the nature of God: 'The "first unveiling"
(تجلّيّ) is the unveiling
of the essence, that is, the unveiling of the essence alone to itself, that is
the (divine) unique Majesty, l in which there is neither quality
nor norm, since oneness is the very self of the essence which is true and mere
existence; for whatever there is besides existence, from the fact that the
latter is existence, is nought but absolute non-existence. The "second
unveiling" is that by which appear
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DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY TRINITY
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the sources of the stable contingents (i.e. existent creatures themselves),
which are the essences becoming evident to itself, and this is the first
self-manifestation in its attribute of knowledge and perception.'1
This theory of the Sufis lies open to many objections, but it shows that, if
God be conceived of as a mere barren monad
(وحدة), then the Deity must be
unconscious as well as unable to reveal Himself. Hence the logical result of
such monotheism is absolute agnosticism. The theory, in order to account even
for the creation of the universe, is obliged to suppose that a change took place
in the unchangeable divine nature. Even then, according to this theory, existent
things are not God's creatures but are emanations from Him. This is plainly
pantheism, because it makes the whole universe partake of the divine nature. All
this blasphemy is the result of an attempt to reject the Scriptural doctrine of
the Holy Trinity; and in rejecting it the Sufis find themselves obliged to admit
a plurality in the Deity. But this plurality destroys the unity and leads to
polytheism, which is opposed by the doctrine of the Trinity of Hypostases in the
divine Unity.
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