Imam Khomeini’s Viewpoint on Absolute being of the Real

Abstract

Qûnawî in his interpretation of Sura Fatiha, maintains that the God’s absolute being is a developing absoluteness of His Being without Qualification and free from the shackles of the composition and plurality. In his view this being is a mere existence, not a plurality, not a hybrid, not adjective, not descriptive, no name, and no formal, no relation, no predication, it is just a pure existence. Fanaari, the commentator of Miftaah al-qaib, considers His existence as an absolute one without any valid adverbial, though it can be taken with or without constraints. However, the discussion is not unconditional although derived bound constraint is applied. Qûnawî provides five arguments to prove that the Necessary Being is the Absolute, and then discusses some doubts and criticisms which have been presented against the proofs. Imam Al-Khomeini in his commentating on Mesbah, seeks to answer the problems. He argue that except the first three arguments, the other arguments don’t establish the claim, so he rejects them and thinks that the main mistake and fault of the invalid arguments are the confusion between concept and extension, the primary essential predication and common technical predication, the conceptual meaning and external reality, and between absolute being and being as a being