161. 1. Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (p) was asked: May I conceive anything in order to understand the existence, nature and unity of God?
Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (p): Yes, but you shall have to imagine something which the mind cannot grasp and which has no limitations. He is unlike anything that comes into your mind or imagination. Nothing resembles Him, nor can any stretch of the imagination reach Him. How can He be conceived when He is totally different from whatever can be conceived and is the reverse of whatever is imagined? If you want to say that God is a thing then imagine something that cannot be encompassed by the mind and which is without limits.

162. 2. Imam Muhammad Taqi (p) was asked: Is it possible to say that God is a ‘thing’?
The Imam (p): Yes, provided you exclude Him from two limitations: non-existence and similarities to other existing things.

163. 5. Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (p): God is absolutely independent of all His creatures and all His creatures have absolutely nothing in common with Him. And to whatsoever the expression ‘things’ is applicable is a creature except God, the Elevated One and God is the Creator of everything.

164. 6. An atheist requested Imam Jafar as-Sadiq (p) to define God by asking: What is He?
Imam Jafar as-Sadiq (p): He is an entity quite unlike the other entities (or things). Revert to this statement of mine in the sense of assertion of absolute existence. He is a ‘Thing’ in the absolute quintessence of the connotation without body or form. He cannot be imagined and cannot be touched and cannot be felt through the five senses. Perception cannot grasp Him. Age cannot enfeeble Him and time cannot change Him.
Atheist: You say that He is All-Hearing and All-Seeing.
The Imam (p): He is All-Hearing and All-Seeing. All-Hearing without organic mechanism (of hearing faculty) and All-Seeing without physiological instrumentation. He hears by Himself and sees by Himself. When I say that He is All-Hearing by Himself and He is All-Seeing by Himself, I do not mean that He is something and that His self is something else. I only intended to express what was in my mind because you asked me a question and I wanted to explain it to you.

As the subject was very delicate and abstract, the Imam (p) explained further:
I say He is All-Hearing, but here ‘All’ does not mean that it is composed of parts. I only wanted to explain and exemplify to you what I had in my mind. The purpose of my statement is that He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing, All-Aware, Omniscient without any multiplicity in His Self of conception.
Atheist: Then what actually is He?
The Imam (p): He is the Nourisher, the Worshipped, and He is God and this statement of mine does not allude to the letters ‘A’ and ‘L’ and ‘H’ etc. By them I mean the connotation and the entity and the Creator of things and their Fashioner and the projected sense of these letters. It is this meaning which has been given the name of God, the Beneficent (ar-Rahman), the Merciful (ar-Rahim), the Powerful (al-Aziz) and other such names. He is known by these names and He is the Worshipped One, the Glorious, the Honoured …