The Typology and Explanation of the argument from Faskh Azaem in Theology

Knowing Allah through Faskh Azaem (that man fails to do what he has seriously determined to do) is one way of proving the existence of Allah that can be understood from Imam Ali’s words. This argument is that failure in performing our serious decisions suggests the existence of Allah. Imam Ali’s this word may come in different analyses: these are the inter-contextual (based on the texts of the Qur’an and traditions), theological and philosophical analyses, all of which are based on the celebrated arguments for the existence of God. Existing analyses may help for a better explanation and connotation of this tradition, however, a close examination and more scrutiny into it may lead us to some novel and different account of it. Our means to analyze this tradition depend on some people’s holy experience of their failure to do what they have seriously decided to do; as the knowing subjects, they may encounter such experience. All holy experiences, major or minor and subjective or objective, reveal a sense of holiness acquiring their meanings from the concept of “being from Him”. Knowing Allah through Faskh Azaem can be a call to such an experience that may happen in the most accessible and day to day events. The outcome of such experience is secondary and capable of intensification achieved by the wayfarer at each phase of knowledge of his vertical journey.