Knowledge, Illuminated Veil (A Reading by Imam Khomeini)

Man is a curious, questioning being who seeks answers to his questions. He is always after questioning knowledge, scholars, the known, intentions, results and values of knowledge and these conditions peak up in him when he finds knowledge with two contradictory attributes, that is, light and veil. Hence he wants to know how a truth that is considered “clear in its essence and clearer for others” can become a veil, indeed the greatest veil. The present article discusses various categories of knowledge, that is, the general and absolute knowledge and specific and specialized science, which is experimental knowledge based on experiment and test. Also reference has been made to the ideas of some scholars who consider knowledge coextensive with being and light. The main focus of this paper is the gnostical ideas of Imam Khomeini who considers knowledge a feature of primordial nature, attributing it to the illuminated aspects of the being of creatures. Imam Khomeini also maintains that all beings concomitant with the limits of their existence are the manifestation of the All-Knowing (Alim), a Name of the Lord. He also maintains that knowledge and awareness are the keys to the creatures’ praise for the Lord and the secret of man’s eternalization and celestialization. He maintains that true knowledge can be acquired through the heaven and any grade of this knowledge is concomitant with the grades of heaven (deeds, attributes, essence). He also maintains very suave points from the Alaq Chapter of the holy Quran on the value and status of knowledge.