General Beliefs
By Ayatullah Jafar Sobhani

(Continued)
The Divine Attributes (Sifat)
Given the fact that the Essence of God is an infinite reality, having thus no like or equal, man has no way of grasping the depth of this Essence; he can only come to know God by way of an appreciation of God's attributes of Beauty (jamal) and Majesty (jalal).The attributes of Beauty are those which display the perfection of God's nature, such as Knowledge, Power, Life, Will, and the like. As for the attributes of Majesty, they refer, on the contrary, to His being too exalted to be described by any attribute; they therefore refer [in the first instance] to a lack, an absence or inability. Now God is absolutely self-sufficient, utterly transcending all imperfection or deficiency. Possessing a material body, occupying a particular space, being established in a particular time, being a composite entity, and so on - all of these qualities fall into this type of attribute. Sometimes these two types of attribute are referred to as thubuti (affirmative) and salbi (negative), while the object to which both ultimately refer is one and the same.

In our discussion [in Chapter One] on the means of acquiring knowledge, we stated that the principal paths leading to the knowledge of objective truths are those opened up by the senses, the intellect and revelation. In order to acquire knowledge of the attributes of God, both of Beauty and Majesty, we can benefit from two of these paths: (a) the way of intellect, and (b) the way of revelation.

The Way of Intellect
Careful study of the created universe - with meditation upon its secrets and its mysteries, all of which are part of God's creation - leads us to a discovery of the perfections of God's being. Can one conceive of the raising up of the magnificent edifice of creation without the active involvement of some transcendent Knowledge, Power and Will? The Glorious Qur'an calls attention to this capacity of the intellect to arrive at the natural conclusion of such reflection, by inviting man to ponder deeply the signs of creation, both the external signs outside himself and the internal ones within his own soul:

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