242. 1. Imam Jafar as-Sadiq (p) said that when Imam Ali (p) gathered the people for waging a war against Muaviah for the second time (after the arbitration) and people thronged around him, he (p) delivered the following sermon:
All praise be to God the One, the Samad (sought by all) the Unique and the One who has not been created out of anything pre-existing and who has not created anything out of anything which existed before Him but He created everything by His Own Might. Different are things from Him and different is He from things. He has no attributes that can be comprehended. Nor He has any limit that can be specified or exemplified. In linguistic sublimity and eloquence, tongues have become dumb and speechless in describing His attributes. And circumlocution in respect of His attributes leads one to a blind alley. And in trying to specify His kingdom, the best schools of thought have become bewildered. All conceivable explanations have become ineffective in going deep into His kingdom. Volumes of deliberations have failed in reaching even the borders of the knowledge about Him. Mysterious curtains intervene in understanding the most superficial layer of His subtleties.
Thus hallowed be God Who can neither be touched by the most daring nor intuitively reached by the deepest insight. Exalted is He for whom there is no measure of time, no extent of vastness and no limit to description. Purified is He whose beginning has no beginning nor His end any end, nor is there any annihilation terminating Him, Glorified is He. He is as He has described Himself. He specified the boundaries of all things at the time of creating them and completely banned the possibility of His resembling things or things resembling Him. He never contained His Supreme Self in anything so that it could be said that He exists within that thing. Nor has He been apart from things so that it could be said that He is part of that thing, He has never been lost from things so that the question of ‘Where is He’ could arise. Rather, He the Glorified has encompassed the things by His knowledge and perfected them and computed them in His memory. Even the things hidden behind the curtains of the atmosphere, and the deep slumber which occurs in the hidden darkness and whatever there is in the high heavens and the low earth are not hidden from his All-Encompassing knowledge. For everything there is a custodian and a keeper and all things are surrounded by other things and He (God, the Almighty, the Majestic) encompasses all things which surround them.

God is the One, the Unique, the Besought by everyone, whom the passage of time does not change and He is never tired by the constructions or the creations of anything. Whatever He willed He said, “Be” and it came into being. He started creating whatever He created without there being any precedent for it and without any fatigue and any planning. All the makers of things made those things out of something but God made His creations out of nothing. Every scholar acquired knowledge before their creation. Thus there was no addition in His knowledge because of their coming into existence. His knowledge about them, before their coming into existence, is the same as His knowledge after their coming into being. He never made things strengthen His control over them. All creation is sustained and nurtured by Him and all are humble slaves before Him.

Glorified is He who never feels weary in creating what He wills, nor in nurturing whatever He has created nor has He ended creating because of His inability or slackness. He knew what He created and created what He knew. Whatever He created was not out of deliberating on any new knowledge. Nor does any doubt arise for Him regarding the things He has not created, but (what He created and what He did not) was according to His inviolable decisions, firm knowledge and exact command. He made Himself unique in His lordship, specific in his Oneness, earmarked Glory, He remained matchless in praise and exalted in His Glory, He is far above parenthood purified from and sanctified against any feminine touch.

He is too Great and too Mighty to seek proximity with any participant. Thus no one is in opposition to Him among the things He has created, nor is there any partner in His kingdom. He is the One, the Unique, the Besought of all, the Eternal, the Everlasting, the Lord of space, Who has always been and Who shall always be, the Eternally All Alone before the beginning of the sense and conceptions and measures of ‘Time’ and after the end of all affairs. He will be neither finished nor exhausted. In this way I describe my Lord. Thus, there is no god except God. Great is He and how Great! Glorified is He and how glorified! Almighty is He and how Almighty! He is far too above what the wrong-doers say about him, far above…

243. 2. Imam Jafar as-Sadiq (p): Verily God, the Elevated, Whose name is blessed, Whose remembrance is Sublime and Whose praise is great, is Glorified, is Unique and the Only One. He has always existed and will continue to exist eternally. He is the First and the Last. He is Manifest and (He is) Hidden. He has no beginning. He is the Most Elevated in His Greatness. His pillars (of greatness) are very lofty and His foundation (of Might) is very sound. He is the Great Monarch boundless in His bounties. His Eminence is resplendent. He cannot be placed within any limits because He can never be approached through concept of state, condition, quality, kind, manner, mode, fashion and form.

244. 3. Imam Ali ar-Reza (p): …The Creator can never be described except in the manner in which He has described Himself. How can we describe what cannot be approached by the senses, cannot be grasped through the imagination, cannot be encompassed by the ideas and cannot be caught by eyes? He is far greater than the manner in which they describe Him and is higher than the praise any eulogist can offer Him.

245. 4. Imam Jafar as-Sadiq (p): Once Imam Ali (p) was delivering a sermon from the pulpit of the mosque of Koofa, a person called Zelib who was very eloquent and outspoken, stood up and addressed Imam Ali (p) saying, “O Leader of the Believers, have you ever seen God?”
Imam Ali (p): I am not among those who worship the Lord without seeing Him.
Zelib: O Leader of the Believers, how have you seen Him?
The Imam (p): Woe be unto you O Zelib! Eyes have not seen Him by the faculty of sight but hearts have seen Him through the realities of conviction. Woe to you! O Zelib! My Lord is the most Subtle but He cannot be described in terms of fineness. He is Magnificent but cannot be described in terms of magnitude. He is very Great but His greatness cannot be described on the basis of size. He is incalculably Glorious but His Glory cannot be described in measures. He has been before anything and it cannot be said that anything was before Him. He is after everything but the word ‘after’ cannot be applied to Him …

246. 6. A believer requested Imam Musa al-Kazim (p) to explain the Oneness of God. The Imam (p) replied in his own handwriting as follows:
All praise is meant for God. He Who guides mankind towards Himself through His creation and Who affirms His being eternal through his bringing His creatures into existence. He has made them resemble each other to prove that there is nothing to resemble Him. His creations are a witness to His Might. His entity is independent of all attributes. Eyes are prevented from seeing Him. The human senses do not encompass Him. No screen can conceal Him. The only curtain between Him and His creation is nothing but the fact that what the created can imagine about the Creator is not at all worthy of the Creator. He is one in the sense of being unique and not in the sense of an arithmetical figure. He is the Creator not in the sense of being a movement or action which according to the materialist has resulted in the creation of the Universe. He is the All-Seeing but not through any instrument (like the eyes). He is the All-Hearing but not by any means (like the ears). He is a witness but without mutual contact. He is hidden but not in the sense of being behind the curtain. He is manifest and apparent but not in the sense of being distant or far. His being Eternal is a bar for the flight of fancy, and His being Everlasting is a punch in the face of the over-ambitious thinker. Penetrating eyes have met with pathetic failure in trying to see the truth about Him. His existence has dwarfed and crippled all imagination in its attempts to grasp Him. The beginning of the acceptance of religion is the acknowledgment of God. And the perfection of acknowledging Him lies in recognizing His Oneness (or Unity). And the climax of His Unity lies in the negation of His attributes as being apart from and independent of Him. Since each and every attribute indicates it’s being separate from the entity it is ascribed to, in the same way as the entity is independent of and apart from the attributes ascribed to it. And all this, the entity and the attributes ascribed to it, proves that they have a plurality not unity. The plurality nullifies their being eternal. Hence whoever puts limits on Him has actually measured Him. And whoever has tried to measure Him has actually nullified His Eternity. Whoever said ‘In what is He?’ has actually confined Him. Whoever said ‘On what is He?’ has actually confined Him, whoever said ‘On what is He?’ is actually ignorant of Him. Whoever said ‘Where is He?’ has actually vacated Him from other places. Whoever said ‘Till when will He be there?’ has actually confined Him to a limited time. He was the Knower before there was anything to lord over. Thus can our Lord be described.