Semantics of the Divine Names and Attributes in the Thought of Qāḍī Saʿīd Qummī and Allameh Tabatabaei

Allameh Tabatabaei and Qāḍī Saʿīd Qummī are two important representatives of apophatic and cataphatic theology. With a negative approach, Qāḍī Saʿīd turns to the impossibility of recognizing the Divine Attributes, denying the existence of any attributes as well as those conceivable by human for the Almighty. In contrast, Allameh rejects the negative approach and turns to apophatic theology by emphasizing the cognitive nature of the language of religion and the existence of attributes. However, referring to the inherent imperfection of concepts and the inability of the human mind to purify concepts from defects, he considers the description of the infinite nature of God with these conceivable and comprehensible concepts to be flawed, although he ascribes the root and principle of the attributes to God due to his specific ontological principles. In this paper, by comparatively evaluating the two perspectives in a comparative and analytical manner, we have analyzed the quality and extent of their success in escaping the problems of both tashbīh (assimilating) and taʿṭīl (divesting God of all attributes), and, of course, have emphasized the necessity of avoiding the two extremes.