Possibility of Rational Knowledge of God and its Realm from the Point of View of Theorizing Theologians in the Kūfah School

With a history of thought examining way, the present article examines the problem of the possibility of rational knowledge of God and its realm from the point of view of the thought trend of the theorizing theologians of the Kūfah school based on narrative and historical reports and has shown that theorizing theologians such as Zurārah, Muʾmin al-Ṭāq And Hishām Ibn Ḥakam and their followers believed in the possibility of a middle rational knowledge of God, which requires the negation of taʿṭīl (refraining of talking about God) and the negation of tashbīh (similitude), and accordingly, they did not oppose the view of the Imāmiyyah majority about the negation of the inherent positive attributes, which required the negation of tashbīh. However, there are clear evidences that they acknowledged the eternal knowledge of the Almighty God before the creation of the universe (negatively and in the sense of non-ignorance). In their thought system, in contrast to the inherent attributes that are negatively attributed to God, there are the act attributes of the Almighty God, which are created along with the act of creation, and their positive attribution to God does not entail any limitation. The theological stream of the school of Kūfah, except for Hishām Ibn Ḥakam and his followers, considered the act attributes of God as created and completely different from the Supreme Being, but the Hishāmiyhah stream considered the act attributes of the Real as a meaning that is neither the same to the Essence nor, like other creatures) out of It and opposite to It.