The Essence of Islam – Volume I — Page 131
Allāh the Exalted 131 tion for the operation of mercy. As God Almighty out of. His mercy desired to exalt man above the rest of His creation, He prescribed the limits and rules of justice between them. It is a folly to imagine a contradiction between justice and mercy. [Kitāb-ul-Bariyyah, Rūḥānī Khazā'in, Vol. 13, pp. 73-74]. Knowledge of God. A subtle question rises here: what is the nature of the knowledge of Almighty God through the perfection of which He is aware of the overt and the covert of every particle? It is true that reason cannot comprehend the true condition of that knowledge, yet it is entirely true to say that of all types of knowledge that can be conceived of that knowledge is more powerful and stronger and fuller and more complete. When we observe our own ways of acquiring knowledge and consider its diverse types, we find that the greatest and most certain and most absolute of all the types of knowledge is the knowledge that we possess concerning our own existence. . No man can in any condition forget his own existence or entertain any doubt concerning it. So far as our reason extends, we find this type of knowledge more powerful and stronger and fuller and more complete. We find it inconsistent with the perfection of God Almighty that. His knowledge with regard to His creatures should in any way be less perfect than this, inasmuch as it would amount to a deficiency on the part of God Almighty, that. He should not possess the highest kind of knowledge once could conceive of and it could be objected why. God's knowledge fell short of the highest kind; was it by. His own design or by some compulsion? It could not be