Kalami, Philosophical, and Gnostic Approaches to the Hadith of  Ama

It has been narrated in a famous hadith from the Holy Prophet (s) that, before the creation of people, God was in “‘ama” (cloud). There have been several different and contradictory ideas concerning the content of this hadith. Muslim mutikallimun, gnostics, philosophers, and interpreters have studied this hadith based on their own principles and have benefitted from it in their own philosophical system. Mutikallimun have interpreted it based on their tanzihi (transcendent) and tashbihi (comparative) views and either confirmed or rejected it. Some Muslim gnostics assume that “‘ama” refers to God’s henas, and others believe that it represents the station of monas. They have matched this term with “merciful breath”, “truth of the creature”, “absolute imagination, and “substance of the world” and have granted it a sublime place. In his Transcendent Philosophy, Mulla Sadra equates ‘ama with “unfolded being”, “unity of bringing together” and “truth of truths” and, through the interpretation of hadith, reaches some conclusions about the dominance of divine existence over all places and times and attempts to reconcile tanzih with tashbih.