Document Type : Research
Authors
1 Researcher and university lecturer
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Thought, Faculty of Islamic Sciences and Researches, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran
Abstract
This text offers an analytical reinterpretation of a tradition (ḥadīth) attributed to Imam al-Ṣādiq (AS) concerning the "worship of the Name and the Meaning," as recorded in the noble book al-Kāfī. The tradition classifies worshippers into four categories: worship of God through illusion (unbelief), worship of the Name without the Meaning (unbelief), worship of both Name and Meaning simultaneously (polytheism), and worship of the Meaning through the application of the designated Names (true faith). After reviewing the perspectives of prominent commentators and philosophers , the author critiques purely philosophical and theological approaches and endeavors, relying on the religious culture derived from Qur’anic verses and Hadiths, to elucidate the precise import of the tradition. The central pivot of this reinterpretation is the distinction between "Name" and "Meaning," and between "Meaning" and "Concept." Drawing on the definition of "Name" given by Imam Ali (AS)—"that which gives news (inbā’) of the named entity"—and employing the Qur’anic narrative of the teaching of the names to Adam (AS), the author demonstrates that the Name is a "report" of the named reality, and that the Meaning is the very truth signified by the Name, not a mental concept. Divine teaching consists in the actualization of the reality of the names' existence in Adam (AS) and his progeny, not merely the transmission of abstract concepts. Accordingly, the worship of the Meaning is the devotional turning toward that reported reality which the Name conveys, without halting at the level of word, concept, or imagination.
Keywords
- Tradition of Name and Meaning
- monotheism in worship
- Name
- Meaning
- report (inbā’)
- teaching of Adam (AS)
Main Subjects
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