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Omnipresence or ubiquity is the property of being present anywhere and everywhere. The term omnipresence is most often used in a religious context as an attribute of a deity or supreme being, while the term ubiquity is generally used to describe something "existing or being everywhere at the same time, constantly encountered, widespread, common". Ubiquitous is also used synonymously with other words, including: worldwide, universal, global, pervasive, and all over the place.
The omnipresence of a supreme being is conceived differently by different religious systems. In monotheistic beliefs like Islam Christianity and Judaism, the divine and the universe are separate, but the divine is in attributes present everywhere. In pantheistic beliefs, the divine and the universe are identical. In panentheistic beliefs, the divine interpenetrates the universe, but extends beyond it in time and space.
The word omnipresence derives from the Latin prefix omni-, meaning "all", and the words praesens, meaning "present". Thus the term means "all present". [1]
Hinduism, and other religions that derive from it, incorporate the theory of transcendent and immanent omnipresence which is the traditional meaning of the word, Brahman. This theory defines a universal and fundamental substance, which is the source of all physical existence.
Divine omnipresence is thus one of the divine attributes, although in Western Christianity it has attracted less philosophical attention than such attributes as omnipotence, omniscience, or being eternal.
In Western theism, omnipresence is roughly described as the ability to be "present everywhere at the same time", [1] referring to an unbounded or universal presence. Omnipresence means minimally that there is no place to which God’s knowledge and power do not extend. [2] It is related to the concept of ubiquity, the ability to be everywhere or in many places at once. [3] This includes unlimited temporal presence. [4]
William Lane Craig states that we shouldn’t think of God as being in space in the sense of being spread out like an invisible ether throughout space. He is not like an invisible gas that is everywhere present in space. This would be incorrect for several reasons. For one, it would mean that if the universe is finite, which is perfectly possible, then God would be finite. We do not want to say that because God is infinite. More seriously, if God is spread out throughout space, like an invisible ether, that means that he is not fully present everywhere. Craig argues that omnipresence is a derived characteristic: an omniscient and omnipotent deity knows everything and can be and act everywhere, simultaneously. Others propound a deity as having the "Three O's", including omnipresence as a unique characteristic of the deity. Most Christian denominations — following theology standardized by the Nicene Creed — explain the concept of omnipresence in the form of the "Trinity", by having a single deity (God) made up of three omnipresent persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. [5]
Several ancient cultures, such as the Vedic and the Native American civilizations share similar views on omnipresent nature; the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans did not worship an omnipresent being. While most Paleolithic cultures followed polytheistic practices [ citation needed ], a form of omnipresent deity arises from a worldview that does not share ideas with mono-local deity cultures. Some omnipresent religions see the whole of existence as a manifestation of the deity. There are two predominant viewpoints here: pantheism, the deity is the summation of Existence, and panentheism, the deity is an emergent property of existence. The first is closest to the Native Americans' worldview; the latter resembles the Vedic outlook.[ citation needed ]. However, ample evidence exists in Vedic texts showing omnipresence and immanent transcendence. In one such Vedic text, namely Isavasya Upanishad, [6] from Shukla Yajur Veda Samhita, verses 40:1,5 [7] clearly shows immanence and omnipresence, while verses 40:4,8 clearly establish transcendence with respect to matter, time and no limitations of any kind.
The monotheist worldview of mainstream Judaism rejects the belief of panentheism and an omnipresent God. [8] While the "entire concept of God occupying physical space, or having any category of spatial reference apply to him was completely rejected by pure Judaic monotheism," Hasidic teachings, along with certain Kabbalistic systems, diverged to postulate belief in panentheism. [9]
Islam, Shia, or Sunni do not believe in omnipresence.
In Athari Islam, Allah is above his throne, in the direction of aboveness, The Hanafi scholar Ibn Abi Al-ʻIzz said in Sharh At-Tahaawiyyah:
“The statements of the Salaf (righteous predecessors) about affirming the attribute of ʻuluww are many. For instance, Shaykhul-Islam Abu Ismaaʻeel Al-Ansaari said in his book Al-Farooq with a chain of narration up to Muteeʻ Al-Balkhi that he asked Abu Haneefah about the person who says, 'I do not know whether my Lord is in the heaven or on the earth.' He (Abu Haneefah) said, 'He has committed kufr (disbelief), because Allaah says (what means): {The Most Merciful (Who is) above the Throne established.} [Quran 20:5], and His Throne is above seven heavens.' He further asked Imaam Abu Haneefah, 'What if he says, 'He is above the Throne but I do not know whether the Throne is in the heaven or on the earth. Imaam Abu Haneefah replied, 'He is kaafir (a disbeliever) because he denies that He is in the heaven. Whoever denies that He is in the heaven has committed kufr.' Another narrator added, 'Because Allaah is above the highest heaven, and He is supplicated upwards not downwards (i.e. people raise their heads towards the heaven and stretch their hands upwards towards Allaah).'” [Sharh Al-ʻAqeedah At-Tahaawiyyah] [10]
and the scholars of the Salaf, who are the source of Athari theology state:
Abu Nasr As-Sijzee Al-Hanafi (d. 444 H.) said in “Al-Ibanah”: “Our Imams such as Sufyan Ath-Thawri, Malik, Hammad bin Salamah, Hammad bin Zayd, Abdullah bin al-Mubarak, Al-Fudail bin `Iyad, Ahmad bin Hanbal, and Ishaq bin Rahwaih, are upon agreement that Allah –Subhanahu wa Ta`ala is by His Essence (bi-dhatihi) above the Throne, and His Knowledge is everywhere.”
In Ash'ari Islam, God has no body or direction and is not bound by space or time. [11]
According to Shia tradition in Nahj al-Balagha, a compilation of Ali's teachings and letters, with commentary by Morteza Motahhari, God is with everything, but not in anything, and nothing is with him. God is not within things, though not out of them. He is over and above every kind of condition, state, similarity, and likeness. Ali says about God's omnipresence:
Sunnis however cite that those narrations lack any actual crediation or authentic isnad to Ali.
This article uses texts from within a religion or faith system without referring to secondary sources that critically analyze them.(August 2023) |
In Christianity, as well as in Kabbalistic and Hasidic philosophy, God is omnipresent. However, the significant difference between them and other religious systems is that God is still transcendent to His creation and yet immanent in relating to creation. God is not immersed in the substance of creation, even though he can interact with it as he chooses. He can make his human-divine body visible anytime and everywhere, whatever he wants: he cannot be excluded from any location or object in creation. God's presence is continuous throughout all of creation, though it may not be revealed in the same way at the same time to people everywhere. At times, he may be actively present in a situation, while he may not indicate that he is present in another circumstance in some other area. God is omnipresent in a way that he can interact with his creation however he chooses and is the very essence of his creation. While contrary to ordinary physical intuitions, such omnipresence is logically possible by way of the classic geometric point or its equivalent, in that such a point is, by definition, within all of space without taking up any space. The Bible states that God can be both present to a person in a manifest manner (Psalm 46:1, Isaiah 57:15) as well as being present in every situation in all of creation at any given time (Psalm 33:13-14).
Specifically, Oden states that the Bible shows that God can be present in every aspect of human life:
Marbaniang points out that omnipresence does not mean divine occupation of all space, nor divine distribution overall space, nor indwelling of every entity, nor that God cannot move in space, nor the diversification of the universe, but means that God is fully present everywhere and that God can do different things at different places at the same time. [14]
Panentheism is the belief that the divine intersects every part of the universe and also extends beyond space and time. The term was coined by the German philosopher Karl Krause in 1828 to distinguish the ideas of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854) about the relation of God and the universe from the supposed pantheism of Baruch Spinoza. Unlike pantheism, which holds that the divine and the universe are identical, panentheism maintains an ontological distinction between the divine and the non-divine and the significance of both.
A creator deity or creator god is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of monolatristic traditions separate a secondary creator from a primary transcendent being, identified as a primary creator.
Tawhid is the concept of monotheism in Islam. Tawhid is the religion's central and single most important concept, upon which a Muslim's entire religious adherence rests. It unequivocally holds that God is indivisibly one (ahad) and single (wahid).
The doctrine or theory of immanence holds that the divine encompasses or is manifested in the material world. It is held by some philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence. Immanence is usually applied in monotheistic, pantheistic, pandeistic, or panentheistic faiths to suggest that the spiritual world permeates the mundane. It is often contrasted with theories of transcendence, in which the divine is seen to be outside the material world.
In Islam, Jannah is the final and permanent abode of the righteous. According to one count, the word appears 147 times in the Qur'an. Belief in the afterlife is one of the six articles of faith in Sunni and Twelver Shi'ism and is a place in which "believers" (Mumin) will enjoy pleasure, while the unbelievers (Kafir) will suffer in Jahannam. Both Jannah and Jahannam are believed to have several levels. In the case of Jannah, the higher levels are more desirable, and in the case of Jahannam, the lower levels have a higher level of punishments — in Jannah the higher the prestige and pleasure, in Jahannam the severity of the suffering. The afterlife experiences are described as physical, psychic and spiritual.
Ein Sof, or Eyn Sof, in Kabbalah, is understood as God prior to any self-manifestation in the production of any spiritual realm, probably derived from Solomon ibn Gabirol's term, "the Endless One". Ein Sof may be translated as "unending", "(there is) no end", or infinity. It was first used by Azriel, who, sharing the Neoplatonic belief that God can have no desire, thought, word, or action, emphasized by it the negation of any attribute. Of the Ein Sof, nothing ("Ein") can be grasped ("Sof"-limitation). It is the origin of the Ohr Ein Sof, the "Infinite Light" of paradoxical divine self-knowledge, nullified within the Ein Sof prior to creation. In Lurianic Kabbalah, the first act of creation, the Tzimtzum self "withdrawal" of God to create an "empty space", takes place from there. In Hasidic Judaism, the Tzimtzum is only the illusionary concealment of the Ohr Ein Sof, giving rise to monistic panentheism. Consequently, Hasidism focuses on the Atzmus divine essence, rooted higher within the Godhead than the Ein Sof, which is limited to infinitude, and reflected in the essence (etzem) of the Torah and the soul.
A personal god, or personal goddess, is a deity who can be related to as a person (anthropomorphic), instead of as an impersonal force, such as the Absolute. In the context of Christianity and Bahai'ism, the term "personal god" also refers to the incarnation of God as a person. In the context of Hinduism, "personal god/goddess" also refers to Ishtadevata, a worshipper's personal favorite deity.
Ayyavazhi theology is the theology of a South Indian religious Faith and officially a sect of Hinduism known as Ayyavazhi. Several fundamental theological beliefs distinguish the Ayyavazhi tradition from Hinduism.
Sufi cosmology is a Sufi approach to cosmology which discusses the creation of man and the universe, which according to mystics are the fundamental grounds upon which Islamic religious universe is based. According to Sufi cosmology, God's reason for the creation of this cosmos and humankind is the "manifestation" and "recognition" of Himself as it is stated in Hadith Qudsi – "I was a hidden Treasure; I desired to be recognized so I created the creature".
In religion, transcendence is the aspect of existence that is completely independent of the material universe, beyond all known physical laws. This is related to the nature and power of deities as well as other spiritual or supernatural beings and forces. This is contrasted with immanence, where a god is said to be fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways. In religious experience, transcendence is a state of being that has overcome the limitations of physical existence, and by some definitions, has also become independent of it. This is typically manifested in prayer, rituals, meditation, psychedelics and paranormal visions.
Nūr is a term in Islamic context referring to the "cold light of the night" or "heatless light" i.e. the light of the moon. This light is used as a symbol for "God's guidance" and "knowledge", a symbol of mercy in contrast to Nar, which refers to the diurnal solar "hot light" i.e. fire. In the Quran, God is stated to be "the light (Nūr) of the heavens and the earth". Many classical commentators on the Quran compare this to God illuminating the world with understanding, not taken literally. The first and foremost to representatively stand to the concept of nūr muḥammadī being the quintessence of everything was Sayyid Abdul Qadir Gilani, who described this idea in his book Sirr ul Asrar. This concept was then preached by his disciples. One of Sayyid Abdul Qadir Gilani's disciples was the Andalusian scholar Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, who categorized nūr into different levels of understanding from the most profound to the most mundane. Shias believe nūr, in the sense of inner esoteric understanding, is inherited through the Imams, who in turn communicate it to the people.
Conceptions of God in classical theist, monotheist, pantheist, and panentheist traditions – or of the supreme deity in henotheistic religions – can extend to various levels of abstraction:
Qadar is the concept of divine destiny in Islam. As God is all-knowing and all-powerful, everything that has happened and will happen in the universe is already known. At the same time, human beings are responsible for their actions, and will be rewarded or punished accordingly on Judgement Day.
In Islam, God is seen as the creator and sustainer of the universe, who lives eternally and will eventually resurrect all humans. God is conceived as a perfect, singular, immortal, omnipotent, and omniscient god, completely infinite in all of his attributes. Islam further emphasizes that God is most merciful. The Islamic concept of God is variously described as monotheistic, panentheistic, and monistic.
Muqātil ibn Sulaymān was an 8th-century Muslim scholar of the Quran, controversial for his anthropomorphism. He wrote one of the earliest, if not first, commentaries of the Qur'an which is still available today.
Ohr is a central Kabbalistic term in Jewish mysticism. The analogy of physical light describes divine emanations. Shefa "flow" and its derivative, hashpaʾa "influence" השפעה hašpāʿā), are sometimes alternatively used in Kabbalah and medieval Jewish philosophy to mean divine influence, while the Kabbalists favour ʾor because its numerical value equals ר״ז, a homonym for רז rāz "mystery". ʾOr is one of the two main Kabbalistic metaphors for understanding God, along with the other metaphor of the human soul-body relationship for the sefirot.
Divine presence, presence of God, Inner God, or simply presence is a concept in religion, spirituality, and theology that deals with the ability of a deity to be "present" with human beings, sometimes associated with omnipresence.
Ayin is an important concept in Kabbalah and Hasidic philosophy. It is contrasted with the term Yesh. According to kabbalistic teachings, before the universe was created there was only Ayin, the first manifest Sephirah, and second sephirah Chochmah (Wisdom), "comes into being out of Ayin." In this context, the sephirah Keter, the Divine will, is the intermediary between the Divine Infinity and Chochmah. Because Keter is a supreme revelation of the Ohr Ein Sof, transcending the manifest sephirot, it is sometimes excluded from them.
Al-Insaf fima Yajib I'tiqaduh walā Yajūz al-Jahl bih, is an Islamic theological book, written by the Maliki-Ash'ari scholar Abu Bakr al-Baqillani, as a methodical refutation against the Mu'tazilis and the Anthropomorphists (al-Mushabbiha).
Al-ʽArsh is the throne of God in Islamic theology. It is believed to be the largest of all the creations of God.
Imam al-Tahawi (Allah have mercy on him) states in his famous al-Aqida al-Tahawiyya: "He (Allah) is beyond having limits placed on Him, or being restricted, or having parts or limbs. Nor is He contained by six directions as all created things are." (P. 9). Imam al-Nasafi (Allah have mercy on him) states: "He (Allah) is not a body (jism), nor an atom (jawhar), nor is He something formed (musawwar), nor a thing limited (mahdud), nor a thing numbered (ma'dud), nor a thing portioned or divided, nor a thing compounded (mutarakkab), nor does He come to end in Himself. He is not described by quiddity (al-ma'hiya), or by quality (al-kayfiyya), nor is He placed in space (al-makan), and time (al-zaman) does not affect Him. Nothing resembles Him, that is to say, nothing is like Him." (See: Sa'd al-Din al-Taftazani & Najm al-Din al-Nasafi, Sharh al-Aqa'id al- Nasafiyya, 92-97).