The View of Imam Khomeini On Unity of Existence

Unity of existence, one of the most important subjects common between philosophy and mysticism, which lies at the foundation of Mulla Sadra’s philosophy has been discussed in some of the mystical writings of Imam Khomeini. Imam in his book, Commentary on Morning Prayer (Sharhe Doayie Sahar) according to the definition of Mulla Sadra which in Asfar explains the unity of existence on the basis of the rule of simple truth, after defining the name tries to describe the relation of the existents of the universe to Godhead. In a further step, by considering the existents as nothing, he sees nothing except the manifestations of Divine Names in the world. According to this view, the existents of the world which are in one aspect mere imagination, on another aspect are considered pure multiplicities for the manifestation of pure and simple being which is hidden. In his Misbah al-hedayat (the Lamp of Guidance) Imam describes the various stages of the manifestation of the Real and then gives some accounts of the relations between manifestations with the stage of Hidden of Hiddenness as well as the relation between Names and Attributes to Godhead. On this basis, Imam sees all the manifestations as a veil for the stage of Hidden of Hiddenness. Again, in his commentary on Surah-al-hamd after giving some explanations about Divine Names and the definition of the annihilation of name in the named, he declares that the human being only through the stages of the divine names can obtain some imperfect knowledge of the holy essence of the Real. In the same book, when Imam defines the meaning of Rabb (the Lord) mentions that everything becomes something with the name of Rabb, and universe begins with name of Rabb and ends with it.